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Title: A LITERATURE REVIEW OF SWINE HEAT PRODUCTION

Author
item Brown-Brandl, Tami
item Nienaber, John
item XIN, H - IOWA STATE UNIV
item GATES, R - UNIV KENTUCKY

Submitted to: Transactions of the ASAE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/21/2003
Publication Date: 2/1/2004
Citation: Brown Brandl, T.M., Nienaber, J.A., Xin, H., Gates, R.S. 2004. A literature review of swine heat production. Transactions of the ASAE. 47(1):259-270.

Interpretive Summary: Engineers designing building and ventilation systems for animal housing need an estimation of animal heat and moisture production. These estimates are published as standards by ASAE (American Society of Agricultural Engineers) or by ASHRAE (American Society of Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). The data used to create the Standards Books was collected nearly four decades ago. Feedstuffs, production practices, and swine performance have changed considerably in that time. These have a substantial effect on both heat and moisture production. This paper is an analysis of swine heat and moisture production over the last forty years.

Technical Abstract: Current ASAE standards of heat and moisture production are based primarily on data collected nearly four decades ago. Feedstuffs, swine practices, growth rate and lean percentage have changed considerably in that time period and have a substantial effect on both heat and moisture production. In fact, recent research has shown that high-lean gain swine are more susceptible to high environmental temperatures, partially due to increased heat production. This increase in heat production is met with no significant increase in physiological methods of sensible heat loss (i.e. surface area) resulting in significant increases in latent heat loss. Furthermore, modern diets containing synthetic amino acids can more closely match diet composition and swine nutrient requirements, and reduce heat production and nitrogen loss. This paper reviews the genetic, nutritional, and environmental effects on heat and moisture production of growing-finishing swine; and identifies the areas that need further investigation.