Are Livestock Effluent Standards of Vietnam Feasible? Insights from Land Use of Wastewater Treatment Plants in Pig Farms

Abundance and persistence of antibiotic resistance genes in livestock farms: A comprehensive investigation in eastern China

The pig sector in Corsica is based by a wide range of farming systems, mainly characterized on traditional extensive practices, which favor contacts between domestic and wild individuals. These contacts are suspected to influence the maintenance and the transmission of shared infectious diseases between both populations. Therefore, it is important to develop methods that allow to understand and anticipate their occurrence. Modeling these interactions requires accurate data on the presence, location and use of land on pig farms and farming practices, but such data are often unavailable, incomplete or outdated. In this study, we suggest a method to collect and analyze pig farming information that combines approaches from social sciences and epidemiology and enables a spatial representation of an index of potential interaction (IPI) between wild and domestic pigs at municipality level in the Corsican territory. As a first step of the process, interviews were conducted to gather information from 103 pig farms. Then, using hierarchical clustering, we identified five different clusters of pig farming practices which were evaluated and validated by local experts using participatory tools. The five pig farming clusters with their respective estimated levels of direct and indirect interactions with wild boars were combined in a linear equation with pig density to estimate a hypothetical index of potential interaction (IPI) in 155 municipalities. Our results revealed the diversity of pig farming practices across the island of Corsica and pointed out potential hotspots of interaction. Our method proved to be an effective way to collect and update information on the presence and typology of pig farms which has the potential to update official livestock production statistics. The spatial representation of an IPI between wild boars and domestic pigs in the Corsican territory could help design regional disease management strategies and policies to improve the control of certain shared pig pathogens in pig farms from Corsica.

This study focuses on the environmental pressure of waste generated from pig farming in Yen Dung district. Terrain analysis of the digital elevation model (DEM) was used to delineate the sub-basin map where pollutants accumulated. Then we combined this map with land use map and statistical data for determining the distribution of pollutant discharged sources. Based on the pollution load coefficient prescribed by the Vietnam Environment Administration, the loads from all sources, including pig farming, were estimated for entire sub-basins within the district. The results show that the pollutant load from pig farming accounts for a large proportion and creates a major pressure on the local environment. The pollutant from pig farming greatly influences the spatial distribution of pollutant loads across sub-basins. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the waste management at pig farms (households and farm) to ensure the effectiveness of the environmental protection for the communities.
 Keywords: livestock waste, pollutant load mapping, pig farming.

Emission of greenhouse gas from livestock waste and wastewater treatment in Taiwan

In 2002, the Parliament of Quebec gave to the councils of a local municipalities the power to adopt a conditional use by-law and a by-law concerning specific construction, alteration or occupancy proposals for an immovable. Other amendments to An Act respecting land use planning and development concern the maximum number of places that may be used for identical or similar uses, the building of residences for the ederly, the protection of lakeshores, riverbanks, littoral zones and floodplains, the regional county municipality land use planning and development plan, the planting or felling of trees and the territorial development plans. In 2003, a bill granted the citizens of certain municipalities the right to expresse their opinion on the changes imposed since 2000 in municipal territorial organization. Two other bills increased the powers of the borough councils of Ville de Quebec and Ville de Montreal in matters of land use planning and development. In 2004, amendments to An Act respecting land use planning and development concern public safety, occupancy and maintenance of buildings, and hog farms. Quebec cases studied the civil liability of municipalities in the exercise of their power to make planning by-laws, procedural fairness in weighing the merits of rezoning requests and the judicial discretion on a request for an order of cessation of a use of land or a structure or the demolition of a structure incompatible with planning by-laws. Quebec cases considered also the objectives of the site planning and architectural integration programs, the criteria permitting to assess whether these objectives have been achieved, the exemption of approval by way of a referendum when the zoning by-law is amended for the sole purpose of conformity, the effects of a change of use on vested rights and the opposability of an order of demolition to the subsequent purchaser of an immoveable to the town planning.

Effect of a dietary modification for fattening pigs on the environmental performance of commercial pig production in Greece

As the global population rises, agriculture and industry are under increasing pressure to become more sustainable in meeting this growing demand, while minimizing impacts on global emissions, land use change, and biodiversity. The development of efficient and symbiotic local bioeconomies can help to respond to this challenge by using land, resources, and side streams in efficient ways tailored to the needs of different regions. Green biorefineries offer a unique opportunity for regions with abundant grasslands to use this primary resource more sustainably, providing feed for cows, while also generating feed for monogastric animals, along with the co-production of biomaterials and energy. The current study investigates the impact of a green biorefinery co-product, leaf protein concentrate (LPC), for input to a pig farm, assessing its impact on pig diets, and the extended impact on the bioenergy performance of the pig farm. The study found that LPC replaced soya bean meal at a 50% displacement rate, with pigs showing positive performance in intake and weight gain. Based on laboratory analysis, the resulting pig slurry demonstrated a higher biogas content and 26% higher biomethane potential compared with the control slurry. The findings demonstrate some of the local synergies between agricultural sectors that can be achieved through extended green biorefinery development, and the benefits for local bioeconomy actors.

Brazil is the fourth largest producer and exporter of pork in the world. Pig farming is raising environmental and economic concerns, mainly associated with the production and use of feed. It causes major environmental impacts due to its strong dependence on scarce resources (e.g. arable land, fossil fuel), and release of pollutants to the air, water and soil (e.g. greenhouse gases, nitrogen). Pig farming relies heavily on high quality food crops (i.e. cereals and oilseeds). In recent years, the growing competition for these high quality food crops with other sectors such as the energy and food sectors has resulted in rising feed costs. The problem of rising feed cost is worsened by price volatility of cereals and oilseeds. The use of alternative feed sources and the genetic improvement of pigs through selective breeding are expected to improve the environmental and economic sustainability of pig farming. The aim of this thesis was to assess the impacts of using co-products in the diets of pigs and of genetic improvement of pigs through selective breeding on both the environmental and economic sustainability of pig farming in Brazil. The results show that the use of co-products in the diets of pigs in Brazil raises feed costs, global warming potential, energy use, and excretions of nitrogen and phosphorus. However, it reduces land use. The use of co-products that can be produced on marginal land (e.g. macauba cake) improves the efficiency of pork production when marginal land is not used to grow food crops. Breeders can use economic values that are derived by accounting for risk and risk preferences of farmers in order to produce breeding materials that increase the utility of risk averse farmers. Similarly, the mitigation of environmental impacts can be incorporated in breeding goals via using economic values that are derived by accounting for environmental costs. Genetic improvement of traits that raise farm productivity has the potential to reduce environmental impacts of farming while also raising the utility of risk averse farmers. The study also measured the effect of genetic expenses on dynamic productivity growth and its components using data from Dutch specialized dairy farms over 2007-2013. The results show that spending greater than the median expenses on genetics has the potential to increase productivity growth associated with inputs and investments in the first two years after the expenses.

Pork is a staple food in many cultures worldwide and plays a significant role in global food systems. However, the production of pork is associated with various environmental issues throughout its life cycle. This study employed a life cycle assessment (LCA) to evaluate the environmental impact of slaughtered pork production in Thailand. The system boundaries encompassed pig breeding, pig farming, and slaughtering. The primary focus was on identifying significant contributors to environmental burdens throughout the pork production chain. Three scenarios for pig feed compositions were assessed. The results indicated that pork production generated a total impact of 5.07 kgCO2-eq on global warming, 1.16E-03 kgP-eq on freshwater eutrophication, 4.69 m2a-eq on land use, and 4.97 m3 on water consumption. Pig feed production, particularly maize cultivation, emerged as a hotspot within the life cycle, contributing the highest impact across all categories. According to scenario analysis, the substitution of rice by-products and sorghum in pig feed tended to reduce the magnitude of the impact. Opportunities were suggested to improve the environmental performance of pork production, especially through feed strategies such as substituting high-impact ingredients with more sustainable alternatives and utilizing waste from pig farming and slaughtering.

Comparative analysis of antibiotic resistance genes on a pig farm and its neighboring fish ponds in a lakeside district

Distribution and migration of antibiotic resistance genes, as well as their correlation with microbial communities in swine farm and its surrounding environments

Mass loading of typical artificial sweeteners in a pig farm and their dissipation and uptake by plants in neighboring farmland

Using a DEA approach this paper assesses the performance of wastewater treatment from pig farms in Taiwan. The results indicate that most pig farms have decreasing returns to scale. The average value of scale efficiency for the sample of pig farms is 0.901, and the pure technical efficiency is 0.821. These efficiency values indicate that most pig farms may improve performance of wastewater treatment through the adjustment of control equipment scale and increasing wastewater treatment efficiency. Moreover, the main cause of scale inefficiency is decreasing returns to scale, which means that increasing investment in pollution control may not provide a corresponding increase of wastewater treatment efficiency. Based on the farm size, it is found that larger pig farms usually have higher values of efficiency. In addition to the farm size, other factors affecting the environmental efficiency are also analyzed and discussed.

Based on the formation structure and status of land use, sampling, and analysis to determine the water quality in eastern suburbs of Guilin City, there are 27 samples include surface and groundwater. The results showed that there was serious nitrate pollution of groundwater in the area belonging to class III groundwater standards, not suitable for drinking. Twenty-six percent of the samples exceed the drinking water NO3--N content standards of the World Health Organization (N 10 mg/L). And different land use types had different NO3--N levels (N 0.088~46.7 mg/L). The main NO3--N pollution sources in shallow groundwater was domestic sewage. Point source pollution also existed in residential areas, such as pig farms; organic fertilizer applied for planting vegetables was the NO3--N sources of pollution in the agricultural area.

<p>Patterns and intensities of past land use are mostly unknown. However, soils in the vicinity of archaeological sites usually carry significant amounts of material culture (mostly pottery sherds) which testify to past human activity. We surveyed surface transects of material culture and soil distribution, radiating from the city center of ancient Abila of the Decapolis. The city had been abandoned during the Medieval and was never resettled, which minimizes the presence of material culture from younger periods. In addition, earlier studies suggested that soil erosion of the rather level limestone plateau surrounding the site was rather limited, indicating that actual land surfaces largely represent those of antiquity. Our survey encountered strongly varying quantities of material culture, which correspond to some soil properties such as concentrations of faeces biomarkers of pork excrements. As the material culture mainly dates to Late Antiquity, and as pork consumption during the Islamic periods is rather unlikely, this indicates that the distribution of the archaeological material was to some degree connected with pig breeding during Antiquity. A possible practice leading to sherd deposition on fields could be manuring, such as from applying dung including pork excrements, but ratios of N-isotopes do not suggest that fields surrounding Abila were subject to application of larger amounts of manure. Therefore, it seems very likely that material culture deposition on the land surrounding Abila was partly connected with the herding of pigs, a land use practice that is attested in Biblical sources on the region.</p>