Commissioning an animal preference chamber for behavioral studies with laying hens exposed to atmospheric ammonia

“…The assessment of the regular emissions during the rearing process is very important in order to reduce them. Before field detection, rearing chamber detection is usually adopted for its easy accessibility [18][19][20]. In this work, a digital rearing chamber inspection system was developed for simultaneous monitoring of broiler growth conditions, as well as emissions of NH 3 and CO 2 with waste tea litter or without litter.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Waste Tea Litter on NH3 and CO2 Emissions during Broiler Rearing

Jie

Zhang

et al. 2022

Applied Sciences

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Pollution generated by livestock and poultry rearing is an important environmental issue, and gas emissions during animal production are continuously increasing. A digital rearing chamber inspection system was designed in the present study in order to examine the waste tea litter’s impact on the growth performance and harmful gas emissions, such as ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2), during broiler rearing. Broilers were raised without litter and with waste tea litter. According to the results, broiler growth showed little difference between the two groups during the experimental period, and it was concluded that waste tea litter had no impact on broiler growth. Meanwhile, the gas emissions of the waste tea-litter group were lower than the non-bedding-materials group. In detail, the average concentrations of NH3 and CO2 of the non-bedding-materials group were 9.33 ± 3.65 ppm and 797 ± 107 ppm, respectively; while these concentrations in the waste-tea-litter group were 1.01 ± 0.35 ppm and 713 ± 69 ppm, respectively. According to the analysis of the litter properties, it was suggested that waste tea litter can reduce the moisture content in litter, and affect microbial and urease activity due to its low carbon nitrogen ratio (C/N), weak acid, and porous structure characteristics. In conclusion, this study showed the potential of waste tea litter in NH3 and CO2 emission reduction during broiler rearing.

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“…Further details on the design, development, and operation of the EPC have been documented by Sales (2012) and Sales et al (2013). Experiments were conducted in accordance with the principles and guidelines presented in Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching (FASS, 2010).…”

Section: Epcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vertical hanging acrylic doors separated each compartment, which improved the control of ammonia at distinct levels, and hens were trained to open them in a separate training apparatus before introduction to the preference chamber. Details of the chamber construction, control system, and ammonia control performance are documented in Sales et al (2013).…”

Section: Hen Choice Test Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Performance of an image analysis processing system for hen tracking in an environmental preference chamber

et al. 2014

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Image processing systems have been widely used in monitoring livestock for many applications, including identification, tracking, behavior analysis, occupancy rates, and activity calculations. The primary goal of this work was to quantify image processing performance when monitoring laying hens by comparing length of stay in each compartment as detected by the image processing system with the actual occurrences registered by human observations. In this work, an image processing system was implemented and evaluated for use in an environmental animal preference chamber to detect hen navigation between 4 compartments of the chamber. One camera was installed above each compartment to produce top-view images of the whole compartment. An ellipse-fitting model was applied to captured images to detect whether the hen was present in a compartment. During a choice-test study, mean ± SD success detection rates of 95.9 ± 2.6% were achieved when considering total duration of compartment occupancy. These results suggest that the image processing system is currently suitable for determining the response measures for assessing environmental choices. Moreover, the image processing system offered a comprehensive analysis of occupancy while substantially reducing data processing time compared with the time-intensive alternative of manual video analysis. The above technique was used to monitor ammonia aversion in the chamber. As a preliminary pilot study, different levels of ammonia were applied to different compartments while hens were allowed to navigate between compartments. Using the automated monitor tool to assess occupancy, a negative trend of compartment occupancy with ammonia level was revealed, though further examination is needed.

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Commissioning an animal preference chamber for behavioral studies with laying hens exposed to atmospheric ammonia

Cited by 6 publications

References 22 publications

Quantifying detection performance of a passive low-frequency RFID system in an environmental preference chamber for laying hens

Quantifying detection performance of a passive low-frequency RFID system in an environmental preference chamber for laying hens

Impact of Waste Tea Litter on NH3 and CO2 Emissions during Broiler Rearing

Performance of an image analysis processing system for hen tracking in an environmental preference chamber

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