Environmental and microclimatic management for swine welfare – Articles

This collection of articles stems from the undertaking WelfarePIGnet – Revolutionary and environment friendly strategies to enhance animal welfare and biosecurity on pig farms, funded by the PSR 2014-2020 of the Emilia-Romagna Area and coordinated by the CRPA – Centro Ricerche Produzioni Animali Soc. Cons. p. A. of Reggio Emilia. A undertaking geared toward transferring and disseminating greatest practices for pig welfare and bettering farm biosecurity.

To realize this aim it was essential to:

• Determine issues associated to animal welfare and biosecurity on pig farms.
• Create a web-based session questionnaire to be delivered to stakeholders (producers, veterinarians, agronomists, animal scientists, agricultural group technicians, and so on.) by way of which they assign a rating from 1 to five in accordance with the extent of significance of the issue.
• Course of the outcomes obtained from the session and determine the ten foremost issues.
• Outline enchancment practices for every downside (Animal Welfare Enchancment Practices).

In the course of the first part of the undertaking, the primary issues recognized had been

• The animals’ entry to fundamental sources reminiscent of feed, high quality water, and sufficient environmental enrichment materials.
• The floor space of the pen and the kind of flooring.
• Environmental management, particularly lighting, presence of noxious gases, and air flow.
• The applying of biosecurity measures to stop the entry and unfold of pathogens on the farm and specifically the procedures for cleansing and disinfection of the buildings and the entry of autos and guests.

Confronted with these challenges, some practices to assist enhance the situations of our animals had been studied, developed, and economically evaluated.

On this first installment, we are going to give attention to practices geared toward bettering environmental and microclimatic management.

Enough monitoring of noxious gases

Ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide are the primary gases current on pig farms that may be significantly dangerous to animals and people. Because of this, we should monitor the concentrations of those gases at totally different instances of the 12 months to intervene to scale back them if threshold ranges are exceeded:

• Ammonia: 10 ppm
• Carbon dioxide: 3,000 ppm
• Hydrogen sulfide: 0.5 ppm

For this function, we should implement an accurate monitoring process, which ought to embody:

• An accurate collection of the pens to be evaluated: We should contemplate the various kinds of housing and pattern at the very least three pens to be able to be consultant.
• An sufficient frequency for detecting dangerous gasoline concentrations by way of mounted or transportable devices and recording the measured values. In international locations the place situations can change tremendously from one season to the following, reminiscent of Italy, at the very least one measurement needs to be made per season.
• Correct identification of crucial factors and adoption of concrete enchancment measures to resolve them.

Periodic monitoring of the focus of noxious gases

When analyzing the prices of implementing this correct gasoline measurement, we should contemplate the prices of funding, labor, and administration.

• The funding value is said to buying the required transportable device and attainable related consumables, estimated at:

  • Software: 2,000 €
  • Maintainance and consumables: 300 €/12 months;

• The corporate’s labor value is said to the time spent to carry out such gasoline measurements and has been estimated at:
  
• The annual value of managing the monitoring periods, within the case of a single kind of housing, can differ between:

  • Farm with 1000 locations: 0.66 €/place
  • Farm with 3000 locations: 0.26 €/place

• To the price of the evaluation, we should always add the price of a specialised technician for the attainable implementation of an enchancment plan. This value might be calculated on a case-by-case foundation.

Good air flow, both pure or synthetic

The air flow of the pens is meant to create and keep an acceptable atmosphere for the life and well-being of the animals and farm employees, in addition to for the sturdiness of the constructing supplies, gear, and technological techniques current within the barn.

We will have two forms of air flow on farms:

• Pure air flow: Primarily based on the upward power of air and wind actions.
• Synthetic air flow: Achieved by way of using motor-driven followers.

With pure air flow, the important thing factors to assessment to realize the specified outcomes are:

• The place of the constructing in relation to the path of air currents.
• The presence of different buildings.
• The slope of the roofs.
• The width of the constructing.
• The right sizing of the air flow openings.
• And final however not least, having a steady ridge or chimneys for air exhaust.

With synthetic air flow, we should contemplate:

• The variety of followers.
• The air inlets and retailers.
• The presence of computerized management techniques and techniques to manage the fan pace and the opening of the air inlets.

Implementation prices will rely on the kind of air flow and the intervention. Some examples are:

• Creating air flow openings: On this case, the fee is linked to the demolition of the partitions and the profiling of the areas. It prices 150 €/m².
• Reinforcement of the air flow system: It will rely on the extra air flow circulate required and might differ from 0.04 to 0.10 €/m³.

Pure and synthetic air flow on pig farms