Abstract

One of the recommendations of the Consultation publique sur le développement durable de la production porcine au Québec (public consultation on the sustainable development of hog production in Québec) held in 2002-2003, was to develop new types of hog manure management, including the agri-environmental management of phosphorus and nitrogen from manure. In the context of a project of the Centre de développement du porc du Québec (CDPQ, Quebec centre for swine improvement) and the Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement (IRDA, Research and Development Institute for the Agri-Environment), whose objectives were to evaluate and adapt an approach for managing droppings under animals in order to facilitate the handling, processing and valorization of manure’s liquid and solid phases, the IRSST evaluated the air quality and, indirectly, worker exposure to the contaminants. What emerged was that, in addition to retaining more than 80% of the phosphorus in the solid phase, this new process also reduces the ammonia emissions in the air by approximately 50%.