Climate change necessitates close consideration of the impact of human activities, and especially an assessment of the emissions of pollutants. The livestock industry, and in particular that of poultry, is recognized as being responsible for the greatest share of ammonia emissions in the environment, and for this reason various strategies have been considered recently to reduce emission levels in this sector. In this work an innovative farming system without litter was analyzed, the AviHome Flooring System, the topic of an experiment funded by the Region of Umbria as part of the 2014-2020 Rural Development Program. The objective is to verify the properties of the AviHome Flooring system, as regards the reducing of ammonia emissions and productive and economic performance, as well as some parameters for assessing animal welfare. Using the Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methods, it was possible to consider environmental and economic aspects jointly in comparison with the traditional intensive poultry farming system. The analysis demonstrated that the use of the system leads to an actual improvement in animal welfare and a lower environmental impact of the farm, without negatively affecting the farm's economic performance. We observed a reduction of ammonia emission on the functional unit (one kg of meat) in the system with AviHome Flooring system (11.8 g per kg of meat) compared to traditional one (15.2 g per kg of meat).
Managing ammonia emissions using no-litter flooring system for broilers: Environmental and economic analysis
Boggia A.;Paolotti L.;Fagioli F. F.;Rocchi L.
2019
Abstract
Climate change necessitates close consideration of the impact of human activities, and especially an assessment of the emissions of pollutants. The livestock industry, and in particular that of poultry, is recognized as being responsible for the greatest share of ammonia emissions in the environment, and for this reason various strategies have been considered recently to reduce emission levels in this sector. In this work an innovative farming system without litter was analyzed, the AviHome Flooring System, the topic of an experiment funded by the Region of Umbria as part of the 2014-2020 Rural Development Program. The objective is to verify the properties of the AviHome Flooring system, as regards the reducing of ammonia emissions and productive and economic performance, as well as some parameters for assessing animal welfare. Using the Life Cycle Assessment and Life Cycle Costing methods, it was possible to consider environmental and economic aspects jointly in comparison with the traditional intensive poultry farming system. The analysis demonstrated that the use of the system leads to an actual improvement in animal welfare and a lower environmental impact of the farm, without negatively affecting the farm's economic performance. We observed a reduction of ammonia emission on the functional unit (one kg of meat) in the system with AviHome Flooring system (11.8 g per kg of meat) compared to traditional one (15.2 g per kg of meat).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
