ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE SWINE AND POULTRY PRODUCTION SYSTEMS FOR THE FUTURE

This project represents the first in a planned series to address the design of environmentally sustainable swine and poultry production systems for the future. It addresses evolving concerns regarding emissions from swine and poultry production farms Three major initiatives are contained in this project. One is to establish a comprehensive framework for evaluation and design of production systems for swine and poultry through a scoping study. The second major initiative is to conduct microbiological studies of the source, fate and transport, and mitigation technologies of indicator and zoonotic organisms associated with swine and poultry production operations. The third initiative is to study the dispersion of bioaerosols from animal feeding operations in relation to weather and source characteristics. The combination of a comprehensive systems approach to evaluation and design along with specific studies of microbial emissions and aerosol dispersion will significantly strengthen our ability to provide science based technology applications that result in mitigation of ammonia, greenhouse gases, pathogens, particulate, and other emissions from livestock and poultry production facilities. For the scoping study, teams including faculty members will identify current comprehensive design criteria for swine production and poultry production systems in North Carolina. They will assemble material and information for each component of a general design framework to enable practical, efficient new system design. The teams will also identify on-going research and education needs. For the microbial Studies, microbiological methods will be used to analyze samples for microbial indicators and pathogens bacteria,fungi, E. coli, and coliphages as indicators of airborne fecal contamination, and Salmonella. Background conditions will be recorded to distinguish microbial contamination found in the environment from those arising from particular facilities. For Aerosol Dispersion Modeling Source characterization, the generation and dispersion of bioaerosols including viable pathogens will be evaluated with measurements taken inside poultry barns as well as at the property lines of the facilities. Samples will be analyzed in the microbiology lab to identify species, determine viability and infectivity, and enumeration of microbial populations. Concentration and emission rate of bioaerosols in the exhaust will be calculated based on measurement of bioaerosols, ventilation rate, and sampling time. Correlation of bioaerosol levels/viability and PM concentrations/particle size will be investigated against various growing conditions including RH and temperature. Dispersion modeling and field validation methods will be used to estimate downwind concentrations of pollutants on local scale using data measured on the farms. Aerosol dry deposition will be investigated through field measurements. Levels of microbials will be correlated to PM levels and particle size at several downwind distances. Measurements of downwind samples will be used to assess bioaerosol dispersion predictions by our modified Gaussian model.