Pork producers are continuously exposed to high levels of dust. Over the past ten years, studies have been done in attempt to develop a method of reducing these high dust levels. Until now, sprinkling of oil appeared to be the most promising technique, reducing dust levels by 50-80% when manually applied. However, because of the intensive labour requirements for manual application, the industry has not adopted oil application in barns. This study attempted to develop an automatic oil sprinkling system using currently recommended application rates. The developed system caused a 79% reduction in dust levels compared to the control room. These results replicated previous dust reduction data done with manual application. In terms of cost of application, this system would cost < $1.00/pig sold. Future projects will look at optimizing oil usage as well as long term effects of oil sprinkling.
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