The Environmental Impact of Lowering Dietary Crude Protein in Finishing Pig Diets—The Effect on Ammonia, Odour and Slurry Production

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dc.contributor.authorBall, Elizabeth
dc.contributor.authorSmyth, Sam
dc.contributor.authorBeattie, Violet E.
dc.contributor.authorMcCracken, Kelvin J.
dc.contributor.authorMcCormack, Ursula
dc.contributor.authorMuns, Ramon
dc.contributor.authorGordon, Fred J.
dc.contributor.authorBradford, Raymond
dc.contributor.authorReid, L. Alanna
dc.contributor.authorMagowan, Elizabeth
dc.date.accessioned2022-11-07T12:31:19Z
dc.date.available2022-11-07T12:31:19Z
dc.date.issued2022-09-23
dc.descriptionPublication history: Accepted - 20 September 2022; Published - 23 September 2022.en_US
dc.description.abstractExcess nitrogen excretion, ammonia and odour are environmental pollutants associated with pig production. Reducing dietary crude protein (CP) will lower the amount of nitrogen excreted, reducing the potential for ammonia emissions, if diets are adequately formulated to supply amino acids and production performance is maintained. Crude protein content in diets for finishing pigs has been lowered recently, but the quantitative effect of this reduction on ammonia, odour, and slurry output is not well-established. The relationship between ammonia and odour is equivocal, and the effect on slurry production is unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of lowering dietary CP on ammonia emission, odour emission and slurry output of finishing pigs. Thirty entire boar pigs were individually housed in groups of six, from 10 weeks of age (30 3.0 kg) and offered standard diets. At 75 kg ( 1.5 kg) pigs were assigned to one of three treatment diets; (1) 180 g/kg CP, 11.0 g/kg total lysine (High CP), (2) 150 g/kg CP, 11.1 g/kg total lysine (Medium CP), and (3) 130 g/kg CP, 9.0 g/kg total lysine (Low CP). After three weeks on the experimental diets pigs were moved, six each week, to individual calorimetry chambers to measure ammonia and odour emissions. Pigs were offered treatment diets ad libitum. At the end of the recording period, the pigs were removed from the chamber, weighed and feed disappearance recorded to calculate intake. The slurry in each chamber was collected and analysed. The reduction in CP in the diet from 180 g/kg to 150 g/kg resulted in a 22% reduction in ammonia emissions, and from 180 g/kg to 130 g/kg resulted in a 47% reduction (p < 0.001). Slurry output from pigs offered the 130 g/kg CP diet was reduced by 39% (p < 0.001) and dry matter increased by 35% compared to slurry from pigs offered the 180 g/kg CP diet (p < 0.05). Water usage (p = 0.017), slurry output and nitrogen and phosphate in the slurry (p < 0.05, respectively) were found to decrease linearly with decreasing dietary CP content. There was no significant effect of reducing CP on performance or odour emission but hydrogen sulphide emissions decreased linearly (p < 0.010) with decreasing dietary CP. There was a weak positive relationship between odour emission and ammonia (linear: R2 = 0.25, p = 0.005) with odour emission reduced as ammonia emission reduced. Reducing dietary CP in finishing pig diets could reduce ammonia emissions, water usage and slurry and nutrient output from pig production.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis work was funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs under Evidence and Innovation Project 15/01/01 with industry contribution from the partners of the Pig Research Consortium.en_US
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12518/496
dc.identifier.citationBall, M.E.E., Smyth, S., Beattie, V.E., McCracken, K.J., McCormack, U., Muns, R., Gordon, F.J., Bradford, R., Reid, L.A. and Magowan, E. (2022) ‘The Environmental Impact of Lowering Dietary Crude Protein in Finishing Pig Diets—The Effect on Ammonia, Odour and Slurry Production’, Sustainability. MDPI AG. Available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912016.en_US
dc.identifier.issn2071-1050
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/su141912016
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherMDPIen_US
dc.rightsCopyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).en_US
dc.subjectcrude proteinen_US
dc.subjectfinishing pigsen_US
dc.subjectammoniaen_US
dc.subjectodouren_US
dc.subjectslurryen_US
dc.titleThe Environmental Impact of Lowering Dietary Crude Protein in Finishing Pig Diets—The Effect on Ammonia, Odour and Slurry Productionen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dcterms.dateAccepted2022-09-20
dcterms.dateSubmitted2022-08-01

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