The Acoustic Environment of the Domestic Pig

Talling, Janet; Lines, J.A.; Wathes, C. M.; Waran, Natalie

doi:10.1006/jaer.1998.0291

Cited by 36 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Mean daily sound intensity levels found in this study were above those found by Sampaio et al (2007) in their study on nursery and finishing facilities, but were in agreement with Talling et al (1998) for mechanically ventilated pig barns. The difference in levels found in the current study and Sampaio's study (2007) may be attributable to differences in animal age, stocking density, physi- cal environment, as well as environmental controls.…”

Section: Light Intensity -Within Day and Within Room Variationsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Sampaio et al (2007) conducted their experiments in Brazil, where swine facilities tend to be more open, utilizing less mechanical ventilation as compared to the farm studied in this research. Also, naturally ventilated buildings were demonstrated to be approximately 10 dB quieter than mechanically ventilated buildings (Talling et al, 1998).…”

Section: Light Intensity -Within Day and Within Room Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Microenvironments in swine farrowing rooms: the thermal, lighting, and acoustic environments of sows and piglets

Morello

Lay

Rodrigues

et al. 2018

Sci. agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.)

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ABSTRACT:The present research hypothesized that the thermal, lighting and acoustic environments in commercial swine farrowing rooms vary over time and from crate to crate. This study was conducted on 27 replicates in two commercial farrowing rooms in North Central Indiana, each equipped with 60 farrowing crates. Temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, sound intensity, and air velocity were continuously monitored and estimated for each crate at the sow level, for 48 h post-farrowing, which is usually a critical period for piglet survivability. Average daily temperature for all the crates in Room 1 was 24.1 ± 2.0 °C, 1.0 °C lower (p < 0.05) than in Room 2. Although the overall mean temperature was similar between rooms and seasons, frequency distribution diagrams revealed that the proportion of time spent within distinct limits of mean daily temperature ranged from 15.0 °C to 28.0 °C and varied substantially between rooms and seasons. Similar results were found for all variables measured in this study. Differences in temperature, relative humidity, light intensity, air velocity, and sound intensity in crates were as high as 9.6 °C, 57 %, 3,847.3 Lx, 0.87 m s −1 , and 38.7 dBC, respectively, in the same farrowing room when measured at the same instant. The results of the present research indicate that aspects that go beyond the physical environment of the sows, such as thermal, lighting, and acoustic environment can vary substantially over time and between crates of automatically climate controlled farrowing rooms. These differences should be taken into consideration in production setting and research.

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Section: Light Intensity -Within Day and Within Room Variationsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Light Intensity -Within Day and Within Room Variationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microenvironments in swine farrowing rooms: the thermal, lighting, and acoustic environments of sows and piglets

Morello

Lay

Rodrigues

et al. 2018

Sci. agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.)

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“…High background noise is commonplace in many commercial pig units, particularly in those with mechanical ventilation, and sound pressure levels of more than 70 dB (A) have been measured in such units (Algers et al, 1978;Talling et al, 1998). The European Council recommends that constant noise as loud as 85 dB (A) should be avoided in pig buildings (Council Directive 2001/93/EC).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of chronic environmental stressors on growing pigs, Sus scrofa (Part 1): stress physiology, production and play behaviour

O’Connor

Parker

McLeman

et al. 2010

Animal

Self Cite

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Commercially farmed animals are frequently housed in conditions that impose a number of concurrent environmental stressors. For pigs housed indoors, elevated levels of mechanical noise, atmospheric ammonia and low light intensities are commonplace. This experiment examined the effects on growing pigs of chronic exposure to combinations of commercially relevant levels of these potential stressors. Four-week-old hybrid female pigs (n 5 224) were housed under experimentally manipulated conditions of nominally either ,5 or 20 ppm atmospheric concentration of ammonia (24 h), a light intensity of 40 lux or 200 lux (12 h) and mechanical noise at either <60 or 80 dB(A) (24 h) for 15 weeks in a fully factorial arrangement (2 3 ) of treatments. The response of pigs to these environmental factors was assessed using a suite of physiological, production and behavioural measures. These included indicators of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation such as salivary cortisol and adrenal morphometry, as well as body weight, food conversion efficiency and general health scores. Play behaviour was recorded as it is thought to be inversely related to stress. Chronic exposure to ammonia produced the strongest effect, shown by lower concentrations of salivary cortisol and larger adrenal cortices in the pigs reared under 20 ppm ammonia, which may have been indicative of a period of HPA activation leading to a downregulation of cortisol production. The pigs in the ammoniated rooms also performed less play behaviour than pigs in non-ammoniated rooms. There was evidence for an interaction between high noise and ammonia on the health scores of pigs and for brighter light to ameliorate the effect of ammonia on salivary cortisol. However, there was no measurable impact of these potential stressors on the productivity of the pigs or any of the other physiological parameters measured. We conclude that there should be little concern in terms of performance about the physical stressors tested here, within current European Union legal limits. However, 20 ppm ammonia may have had an adverse influence on the well-being of growing pigs. In this study, all other aspects of the pigs' husbandry were optimal; therefore, it is possible that under less favourable conditions, more pronounced effects of ammonia, noise and dim light would be observed.

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“…This response was stronger for a frequency of 8 kHz than for 500 Hz and for an intensity of 97 dB than for 85 dB. Pigs respond with an increase in heart rate and plasma glucocorticoids when exposed to short-term noise stress (Talling et al, 1998). A single and short-term noise exposure of pigs at 120 dB was found to increase glucocorticoid concentrations but had no effect on plasma catecholamines (Kemper et al, 1976; cited by Venglovsky et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…McBride et al (2003) reported that the sound intensity in a subsample of 60 New Zealand farms ranged from 84.8 to 86.8 dB. According to Talling et al (1998), the average sound pressure level measured in mechanically ventilated pig buildings in Great Britain was 73 dB. In the Venglovsky et al (2007) project, measurements were carried out on a pig farm in the house for weanlings (from 5-7 to 30-35 kg body weight).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time of day and season affect the level of noise made by pigs kept on slatted floors

et al. 2015

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Abstract. The aim of this study was to prove the hypothesis that the noise emissions from pig housing varies according to the time of day and the season. The measurements were performed in a building for 1150 fattening pigs with a slatted floor during summer and winter. The pigs (average weight 95 kg) were kept in pens under a batch management system. Nine places were the focus of sound intensity measurements (one inside the stable in section 7; eight places outside the building). The measurements were performed during three sets of 5 consecutive days in summer and three sets in winter. On each day the data were obtained during three 30 min periods (before feeding, during feeding and after feeding). The measurement was made inside and outside the building at the same time. The level of noise depends very significantly upon the period of measurement (before feeding, during feeding, after feeding). The following values were recorded inside (place 1): 65.5 ± 1.6 dB before feeding, 72.0 ± 1.4 dB during feeding and 63.4 ± 0.7 dB after feeding (P <0.001). The effect of seasonal noise levels can be seen only in outside measurements (P <0.05; P <0.01). The comparison of measurement place 1 (inside, pen with pigs) with the other places outdoors showed significant differences in both observed factors (P <0.001). We can conclude that the noise in the pig housing depends significantly on the time of day. The season influences the noise outside the building, in particular.

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The Acoustic Environment of the Domestic Pig

Cited by 36 publications

References 9 publications

Microenvironments in swine farrowing rooms: the thermal, lighting, and acoustic environments of sows and piglets

Microenvironments in swine farrowing rooms: the thermal, lighting, and acoustic environments of sows and piglets

The impact of chronic environmental stressors on growing pigs, Sus scrofa (Part 1): stress physiology, production and play behaviour

Time of day and season affect the level of noise made by pigs kept on slatted floors

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