Identification and prioritisation of odorants within the volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions from tunnel ventilated broiler houses in Australia

Abstract

The continued expansion in population of established cities leads to rural encroachment, this rural encroachment results in a decline in the chief barrier against malodours, that of distance. Associated to the population growth is an increased demand upon primary industries to produce greater quantities of food stuffs to satisfy the consumers. Intensive livestock practices are one of the most effective ways to produce the quantity and consistent quality of livestock produce that is in increasing demand from the general population. However the operation of most intensive livestock operations results in an environmental impact that is often difficult to monitor and assess; that of their odour output. The production of broilers (meat chickens) is one example of intensive livestock practice that is under increasing pressure to minimise the impact that it has upon the surrounding environment with respect to odour production. Understanding the emissions from intensive livestock practices is the only way to develop guidelines for operators in order to minimise or at least understand the emissions of their facilities at different production cycle times. The Australian Poultry Cooperative Research Centre (P-CRC) is funding a significant project that is investigating the odour and dust emissions from typical mechanically (tunnel) ventilated poultry houses; one of the aspects of this project is the analysis of non-methane volatile organic compounds. The NMVOC analysis will be performed by collecting pumped sorbent tubes and subsequent assay using thermal desorption - gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) and also thermal desorption - gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and olfactometry (TD-GC-MS/O.) The simultaneous detection using mass spectrometry and olfactometry allows for the odorants within the matrix to be identified and subsequently prioritised.