Evaluation of environmental circumstance within swine and chicken houses in South Korea for the production of safe and hygienic animal food products

This study was undertaken to determine the concentrations of airborne bacteria, fungi, particles, and endotoxin in swine and chicken houses. Six swine buildings and seven chicken houses were randomly selected in southern Gyonggi Province, South Korea. The geometric mean concentrations of airborne bacteria in swine and chicken houses were 2.7×10⁵ CFU/m³ and 5.6×10⁷ CFU/m³, respectively. The airborne bacteria concentrations in chicken houses were significantly higher than those of swine houses (p<0.05). The geometric mean concentration of airborne fungi in swine houses was 4.9×10³ CFU/m³, which was higher than the value of 2.1 × 10³ CFU/m³ found in chicken houses. The mean concentrations of airborne particles and endotoxin in swine houses were 3.48 mg/m³ and 943.1 EU/m³, and they were 15.43 mg/m ³ and 1,430.5 EU/m³ in chicken houses, respectively. A significant difference between swine and chicken houses was found for total dust (p<0.05), but not for endotoxin. In this study, the concentrations of endotoxin in both swine and chicken houses as well as particles in chicken houses were high, and in about 50% of the samples exceeded the worker health safety levels of 614 EU/m³ suggested in previous studies. These results may indicate a considerable respiratory hazard for workers in these environments.