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Indoor and outdoor air quality of large and concentrated livestock facilities from swine farms are increasing concerns to producers and the local community. Odor has received the most attention due to neighbors complaints. Effects of different swine facilities on air quality parameters are very useful information for planning and managing swine facilities.

The study aimed to develop methodology and protocols to assess air quality of large swine facilities, measure air quality and environmental parameters of two typical swine wean-finish facilities in the US Midwest, and analyze the facilities effects on indoor and outdoor air quality.

Two large swine farms, one with deep pit and the other with pull-plug shallow pit and outdoor lagoon manure storage systems were monitored. Concentration of gases and dust at 8 to 10 indoor locations and 4 outdoor locations were measured in three seasons using portable gas and dust analyzers. Odor samples were collected from odor sources, upwind, 500 downwind of the farm. Gas and dust levels at the intake of the first stage 24 in exhaust fan were continuously monitored for at least 3 days in each season.

The preliminary results indicated large spatial and temporal variations of indoor air quality in the swine facilities. In the deep-pit swine building, the average ammonia and dust concentration decreased from 17.0 to 1.4 ppm and from 2.7 to1.9 mg/m3, respectively, as ventilation rates increased from winter (15,000 cfm) to summer (98,000 cfm). However, hydrogen sulfide and exhaust odor levels were relatively stable at concentrations of 200-300 ppb and 1,300 OU/m3 for all three seasons, respectively. In the pull-plug swine building, average ammonia concentration was 22.0 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 566 ppb, and dust 1.1 mg/m3 in cold days. Continuous gas and dust data also showed that indoor pollutant concentrations fluctuated over time. Daily variations of ammonia and dust concentrations were often significant. Daily variations of hydrogen sulfide concentrations were not significantly different in three days of each season, but significant from season to season. Hourly variations of dust and hydrogen sulfide concentration in each day each and hourly variations of ammonia concentrations in afternoons were not statistically different (p>0.05).