Authors: Murphy D, Engelman S, Raynor PC, Ramachandran G, Alexander BH.

Journal of Agromedicine. Minneapolis, Minnesota. June 09, 2014

ABSTRACT:
Workers in the swine industry are frequently exposed to respiratory hazards including organic dusts, bioaerosols, gases, and endotoxin. As production practices in the swine industry continue to evolve to meet growing demand and in response to consumer and food industry preference, the change in practices may cause a change in the working environment. The extent to which these air contaminants vary by the type of swine production facility is not clear. The objective of this research is to characterize air contaminant concentration and variability associated with differing swine rearing practices. This project characterizes air contaminants in a facility with parallel sow/farrow rearing systems (gestation crates and open gestation pens), and finishing pens using dry and wet feed delivery systems. Time-weighted average respirable dust and endotoxin concentrations are measured at stationary locations. Real-time measures of respirable dust, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and carbon dioxide concentrations, and temperature and relative humidity are measured to assess temporal and spatial variability throughout the site. The contaminant concentrations will be summarized to estimate average, peak, and spatial distributions and compared between the type of production system. The measures will be repeated in cold and warm weather months. Initial measurements indicate concentrations of ammonia and hydrogen sulfides are modestly higher in the gestation crate housing, while respirable dust concentrations are higher in the pens. There is considerable variability in concentrations with space and time. All concentrations measured to date are below occupational exposure limits. Characterizing airborne contaminants in swine production operations by type of facility will identify the potential impact facility type has on workers, which can then be evaluated along with animal welfare needs. Understanding variability of exposure by type of operation will inform future research on the control of air contaminants within these systems. Additionally, studies that evaluate potential respiratory health effects will be better designed with knowledge of the range and types of exposures. The second phase of this study will repeat these assessments in several facilities with differing configurations to characterize the range of these exposures across the industry.

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