Mitigating Ammonia Emission from Broiler Houses using a Novel Biodegradable Litter Amendment

The emission of ammonia from commercial broiler production has generated such concerns that air pollution controls may be required for the long term sustainability of the US broiler industry. In this study, a new biodegradable litter amendment (BLA) with pH < 4, made by steam explosion of corn cobs, was tested as a mitigation method for ammonia emissions from broiler litter. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of BLA in controlling ammonia emitted from broiler houses. A pilot scale test was conducted at the Virginia Tech Turkey Research Farm in Blacksburg, Virginia. Six adjacent rooms each measuring 3.8m long by 3.6m wide and tapering in height from 3.3m at the inner wall to 2.7m at the external wall, were selected from a building with 36 similar rooms. Each room was ventilated using a separate exhaust fan and used to grow broilers at a stocking density of 0.065 m2 per bird.