Contaminant Dispersion Within and Around Poultry Houses Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

The United States poultry industry is the world’s largest producer and exporter of poultry meat. U.S. consumption of poultry meat (broilers, other chicken, and turkey) is considerably higher than either beef or pork, but less than total red meat consumption. The U.S. is also a major egg producer; egg consumption has been reported to be around six eggs per person per week in the country [1]. Poultry producers worldwide depend on sustaining good flock health to remain competitive in both national and international trade. Thousands of chickens are often housed inside a single poultry house, and if one chicken is affected by an airborne virus, then the remaining chickens inside the poultry house have a high chance of getting the disease. This leads to rapid spread of disease within and outside the poultry house and it represents huge economic loss for the producers and companies involved. Therefore, monitoring and control of airborne particles are important issues. The most common diseases are the ones caused by the avian respiratory viruses, including avian influenza, Newcastle disease, Paramyxovirus type 2 and Paramyxovirus type 3, infectious bronchitis, and infectious laryngotrachitis [2] [3] [4]. These respiratory viruses have been documented to cause major disease outbreaks in poultry. Awareness of potential disease transmission from farms and expectations for proactive responsibility for managing those emissions is under scrutiny by neighbors, regulators, retailers, and environmental interest groups. Measuring and quantifying virus particles is very important from the point of view of control and prevention of epidemic outbreaks. This in turn depends upon understanding the impact of mechanical and biological environments. Ventilation schemes in poultry houses are used to provide cooling during warm weather and to improve air quality during cold weather. Ventilation thus affects the particle distribution within and emissions from poultry houses. Ventilation air movement can be