Mousqué Solène, Mocz Frédérique, Riber Anja B
AgroSup Dijon, Higher National School of Agriculture and Food Science, 21079 Dijon, France.
Epidemiology, Health and Welfare Unit, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), 22440 Ploufragan, France.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 21;13(5):783. doi: 10.3390/ani13050783.
The dust level is included in the animal welfare legislation of the European Union, implying assessment of dust levels during veterinary welfare inspections. This study aimed to develop a valid and feasible method for measuring dust levels in poultry barns. Dust levels were assessed in 11 layer barns using six methods: light scattering measurement, the dust sheet test with durations of 1 h and 2-3 h, respectively, visibility assessment, deposition assessment, and a tape test. As a reference, gravimetric measurements were obtained - a method known to be accurate but unsuitable for veterinary inspection. The dust sheet test 2-3 h showed the highest correlation with the reference method with the data points scattered closely around the regression line and the slope being highly significant ( = 0.00003). In addition, the dust sheet test 2-3 h had the highest adjusted R (0.9192) and the lowest RMSE (0.3553), indicating a high capability of predicting the true concentration value of dust in layer barns. Thus, the dust sheet test with a test duration of 2-3 h is a valid method for assessing dust levels. A major challenge is the test duration as 2-3 h is longer than most veterinary inspections. Nevertheless, results showed that potentially, with some modifications to the scoring scale, the dust sheet test may be reduced to 1 h without losing validity.
粉尘水平已被纳入欧盟的动物福利立法，这意味着在兽医福利检查期间要对粉尘水平进行评估。本研究旨在开发一种有效且可行的方法来测量家禽饲养场中的粉尘水平。使用六种方法对11个蛋鸡饲养场的粉尘水平进行了评估：光散射测量、分别持续1小时和2 - 3小时的积尘片测试、能见度评估、沉降评估和胶带测试。作为参考，采用了重量法测量——这是一种已知准确但不适用于兽医检查的方法。2 - 3小时的积尘片测试与参考方法的相关性最高，数据点紧密分布在回归线周围，斜率高度显著（= 0.00003）。此外，2 - 3小时的积尘片测试具有最高的调整R²（0.9192）和最低的均方根误差（0.3553），表明其预测蛋鸡饲养场中粉尘真实浓度值的能力很强。因此，持续2 - 3小时的积尘片测试是评估粉尘水平的有效方法。一个主要挑战是测试持续时间，因为2 - 3小时比大多数兽医检查的时间长。然而，结果表明，通过对评分标准进行一些修改，积尘片测试有可能缩短至1小时而不丧失有效性。
