Journal of Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers ISSN:1738-3692(Print) 2093-7709(Online) 한국농공학회논문집

The movement of animals is one of the primary factors that influence the variation of livestock emissions. This study evaluated the relationship between animal activity and three major emissions, PM₁₀, PM_2.5, and ammonia gas, in weaning, growing, and fattening pig houses through continuous monitoring of the animal activity. The movement score of animals was quantified by the developed image analysis algorithm using 10-second video clips taken in the pig houses. The calculated movement scores were validated by comparison with six activity levels graded by an expert group. A comparison between PMs measurement and the movement scores demonstrated that an increase of the PMs concentrations was obviously followed by increased movement scores, for example, when feeding started. The PM₁₀ concentrations were more affected by the animal activity compared to the PM_2.5 concentrations, which were related to the inflow of external PM_2.5 due to ventilation. The PM₁₀ concentrations in the fattening house were 1.3 times higher than those in the weaning house because of the size of pigs while weaning pigs were more active and moved frequently compared to fattening pigs showing 2.45 times higher movement scores. The results also indicated that indoor ammonia concentration was not significantly influenced by animal activity. This study is significant in the sense that it could provide realistic emission factors of pig farms considering animal’s daily activity levels if further monitoring is carried out continuously.