Laboratory-scale experiments were undertaken to investigate aeration and air stripping as methods for removing ammonia from swine waste waters with high nitrogen contents. The effects of temperature, air:liquid flow ratio and pH were investigated using waste waters with a range of solids concentrations (0.609-3.780%) and pH values (9.3-12.7). Five sets of aeration experiments were carried out using two identical 3-litre reactors made of acrylic tubing. For the air-stripping experiments, two identical stripping towers were constructed out of acrylic tubing and packed with plastic rings. At a pH of 11.2, the aeration method took ~150 h to achieve 90% removal efficiency. This was achieved at 22 degrees C with a low air flow rate of 1.15-1.60 litres/min. At a comparable pH (11.5), the best results for the air-stripping method were 90% removal in only 7 h. This result was obtained with waste water at 22 degrees, as in the aeration experiment, but the air flow rate was much higher at 90 litres/min. Results showed that at pH 9.5 or 10.5, ammonia removal efficiency depended directly upon the temperatures of influent air and liquid; at pH 11.5, temperature increase gave negligible improvement. Influent with lower pH (particularly <10.5) took longer to reach a given extent of deammoniation. A pH of 10.5 is recommended as the most efficient tested, as very high nitrogen removals were obtained at that pH without incurring problems of excess lime. The high ammonia removal efficiency of the method indicates that it could provide an interim solution for current waste management problems in the swine industry.