Determining the Contribution of Ventilation and Insulation of Broiler Breeding Houses in Production Performance Using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Abstract

This study was conducted using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in order to rank broiler breeding farms in Zanjan province, Iran, regarding buildings, installations, and equipment to determine their effects on production factors. Data on 108 farms were collected using designed forms. This data was analyzed based on the effectiveness of each parameter in the production and management category according to experts' opinion. The results indicated that ventilation systems (fans, inlets, and damper) as well as wall and roof insulation in poultry houses, constituted 66% of the technology coefficient. The stocking density increased through improvement of the mechanization coefficient. Most of these farms used longitudinal or tunnel ventilation and a combination of small and large fans. Roof insulation was mostly done using glass wool, and corrugated plastic while installing the heaters outside the poultry house. In these farms, the use of nipple drinkers and plate feeders was more prevalent. Moreover, the results showed that feed conversion and production indices have a significant correlation with mechanization coefficient so that farms with better mechanization coefficients had lower conversion ratio (p=0.04) and higher production indices (p=0.015). In general, the results indicated that ventilation and air inlet systems, as well as wall and roof building technologies have the greatest influence on the mechanization coefficient, while better mechanization coefficients translated into improvements in production efficiency and economic performance of poultry farms.

Mitigation Strategies of Air Pollutants for Mechanical Ventilated Livestock and Poultry Housing—A Review

“…Transversal ventilation means that the fan is installed on the transverse wall, and flows along the shorter axis (Figure 1b) [38]. The diameters of fans used for transverse ventilation are generally small [39]. Vertical ventilation refers to applying a vertical flow of air in livestock and poultry housing.…”

Representativeness of the field of rural buildings and ambience in Brazilian journals / Representatividade do campo dos edifícios rurais e do ambiente nas revistas brasileiras

“…The impact that a rural production building can cause on the production process itself, on the product and the workers, is very expressive. Especially in animal production, the quality of the physical environment 2,3,11,12,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] (rooms, population density, construction materials, the ease of nutritional and sanitary management) and the quality of the indoor environment (pollutant gases, particulate materials, microorganisms, temperature and relative humidity, ventilation 11,[31][32][33] ) are distinctive factors in the quality of the process and product.…”