Location: Poultry Production and Product Safety Research
Project Number: 6022-63000-006-052-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 22, 2026
End Date: Sep 29, 2029
Objective:
The objective is to conduct on farm studies of the indoor air scrubber working collaboratively with poultry integrators and growers.
Approach:
Our team will be testing the efficiency of the indoor air scrubber to remove ammonia, dust, and pathogens from the air in poultry houses. The goal of this research is to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the new ARS Indoor Air Scrubber for reducing ammonia, dust, and airborne pathogens from the air inside poultry rearing facilities. The parties will (1) install three scrubbers and slow sand filters onto a broiler farm in Northwest Arkansas that has at least six chicken houses, (2) determine its effectiveness in reducing ammonia, dust, and airborne pathogens including surrogate viruses for HPAI, Campylobacter and Salmonella, (3) gather data from the poultry company on weights, feed conversion and mortality in each house, (4) measure the amount of acid used by the scrubbers and the amount of nitrogen captured, and (5) tract the cost and benefits of the air scrubber for five flocks of birds to determine if it is cost-effective.