Ammonia and poultry welfare: a review

Abstract

Atmospheric ammonia is a major aerial pollutant of poultry buildings. The current exposure limits for ammonia of 25ppm are set on the basis of human safety rather than animal welfare. This paper reviews the evidence for ammonia exposure affecting various aspects of poultry welfare. The reviewed evidence suggests that ammonia exposure (1) causes irritation to the mucous membranes in the eyes and the respiratory system; (2) can increase the susceptibility to respiratory diseases; and (3) may affect food intake, food conversion efficiency and growth rate. The behavioural effects of ammonia on poultry have recently been investigated and suggest that there may be a threshold for ammonia detection or aversion at or below the current exposure limit. The available evidence for the effects of ammonia on poultry welfare should be considered when setting future guidelines for ammonia exposure in poultry houses. The morphology of the olfactory system in the vertebrates. Biological Reviews 28: 195 AL-MASHHADANI, E.H. and BECK, M.M. (1983) An SEM study of pulmonary ultrastructure in chickens subjected to various levels of atmospheric ammonia.

Effect ofLeuconostoc mesenteroidesKCCM35046 fermented aged garlic extract on egg production, egg quality, odour gas emissions, targetedE. colicolony, haematological characteristics and fatty acids composition of egg yolk in laying hens

“…Poultry manure is one of the major sources of nitrogen pollution (Song et al 2012), in which NH 3 and H 2 S are major aerial pollutant (Kristensen & Wathes 2000) with adverse effects on the production of birds (Miles et al 2004). Therefore, our emphasis has been placed to observe the impact of AGE on excreta noxious gas emission in laying hens.…”

Welfare of broiler chickens

“…Also, during summer birds often experienced conditions of discomfort mainly due to the combined effect of high humidity (deriving both from outside air and the cooling system) combined with high temperature. Ammonia is an abundant pollutant in broiler houses and it may have a great impact on poultry welfare (Kristensen and Wathes, 2000). Ammonia is formed during the decomposition of uric acid and the efficiency of this conversion is directly related to the level of litter moisture.…”

Behavior of broiler chickens in four different substrates: a choice test

“…These two terms are not the same, according to Kirkden and Pajor (2006): preference denotes a difference between the strength of motivation to obtain or avoid something, while choice describes characteristics of an animal (e.g., an animal prefers bananas to oranges). In recent years, both of these tests have been used with poultry to develop preference studies with very different objectives, such as studying color in pecking devices (Jones & Carmichael, 1998), light sources (Moinard & Sherwin, 1999;Kristensen et al, 2007), type of cages (Elston et al, 2000) or ammonia concentrations (Kristensen & Wathes, 2000). Therefore, the first aim of the present research was to assess the selection by broiler chickens of different types of materials widely used as litter in the poultry industry (sand, wood shavings, straw and rice hulls) using a choice test.…”