Odor production is an issue of extreme importance to the swine industry. Indeed, it is becoming more difficult to operate a facility in the light of public sentiment and development of new facilities is problematic. Unchecked, the odor problem may be the most significant threat faced by the industry in the coming years. One problem associated with swine production odor control has been our almost total lack of odor measurement techniques. Until very recently, the technology depended heavily on the use of olfactometry – a panel of trained persons who smell the samples. Two members of this team (DiSpirito and Zahn) have developed chemical techniques that provide accurate, rapid and economical determination of the chemicals that comprise malodor. Our current estimates are that the new method may be used at a cost of 5% of olfactory methods — and they are more reliable and quantitative. With the ability accurately measure odor production, we are in a unique position to attack the problem of swine production-associated odors.
This study focused on the development of a statistical model for the correlation between chemical composition and odor from swine production facilities. With this method, specific odor intensity and descriptors can be correlated with the chemical composition. This method provides for user-friendly sample collection methodology, which is unbiased, and is less expensive than olfactometry. The system provides a procedure to tell if malodorous compounds are either increasing or decreasing over time as related to management practices.