Influence of Dietary Incorporation of Bloodmeal on Nursery Pig Manure Composition and Odor

Introduction Manure odor is the result of the anaerobic decomposition of the organic matter present. By altering the composition of manure, as excreted, changes in the odor of decomposing manure may occur. Compositional alteration may occur by changing the dietary nutrient composition or by altering the use of these nutrients. Feed ingredients may contribute to manure odor due to their nutritional composition or inherent odor that may mask or counteract other manure odorants. Bloodmeal (BM) is one such ingredient that appears to alter manure odor. In a blind test, human panelists can distinguish between manures from dairy cows fed diets with and without dietary bloodmeal (Roger Nordstedt, personal communication). Specific objectives of this work were to (1) determine whether manure odors differ when pigs are fed different levels of bloodmeal in the diet, (2) determine chemical composition of manures excreted from nursery pigs fed diets with and without dietary by-products, and (3) correlate chemical concentrations of manure odorants with organoleptic measures of manure samples. A fourth objective was to evaluate electronic nose technology as a means of discriminating between manure odors and emulating human response.