Effect of season on ammonia emissions in pig fattening

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine emissions and emission factors of ammonia from pig housing on the fully slated floor during four fattening batches. We tested the hypothesis that ammonia emissions show differences in their emission rates relative to season. During investigation we found that within all four batches 836 kg of NH3 was produced. The highest daily emission rate of NH3 was found in autumn-winter batch and the lowest in summer-autumn batch II. Differences in daily emission rates of NH3 were significant among all batches except the batches: summer-autumn I and autumn-winter. Ammonia emissions of all batches increased with increase in their concentrations (P<0.01). Only in the autumn-winter batch they were in positive correlation with amount of emitted air (P <0.01). We also registered their negative correlation with outdoor temperature in all batches (P <0.01; P < 0.05). Ammonia emission factors of individual batches recorded different values, and therefore the average NH3 emission factor with the value 2.1 kg of NH3 per animal and per year was calculated.