Search

In recent years, the scale of poultry breeding in China is gradually expanding, and the demand for feed raw materials is also rising. At present, the poultry industry is facing the problem of shortage of protein feed resources, so it is urgent to find high-quality and sustainable protein feed raw materials. The edible insect black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens L., BSF) has become a potential sustainable new protein feed, which can replace traditional protein feed materials such as soybean meal and fish meal. BSF is a saprophytic insect, which mainly feeds on organic waste, and has the characteristics of rapid growth and reproduction, extensive feeding and high feed conversion rate. The larvae or pre-pupae of BSF are rich in protein, fat, minerals, and trace elements, and their content of essential amino acids is comparable to that of fish meal and soybean meal. They also contain bioactive substances such as lauric acid, antimicrobial peptides, and chitin. Based on the nutritional characteristics of BSF larvae and processed products, this paper reviewed the research progress of BSF in poultry breeding, in order to provide a reference for the wide application of BSF in poultry production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The policy of "changing grain to forage" is an important means to optimize the structure of farming and breeding, a powerful measure to boost the agricultural economy, and the core of promoting high-quality development of the aquaculture industry. Based on the double difference model, panel data from eight provinces implementing the "changing grain to forage" policy was selected to explore the impact of the implementation of the "changing grain to forage" policy on the scale of livestock and poultry breeding. The research results show that the implementation of the "changing grain to forage" policy has a certain driving effect on the expansion of livestock and poultry breeding scale in China. The level of intelligent breeding and fixed asset investment has a significant promoting effect on the scale of livestock and poultry breeding. The price of calves and the intensity of disease occurrence have inhibitory effects on the scale of livestock and poultry farming. Further research has found that the implementation of the "changing grain to forage" policy can significantly promote the large-scale development of livestock and poultry in breeding farms. The level of intelligent breeding has a more significant positive effect on large-scale breeding farms. Compared to medium scale farms, the intensity of disease occurrence has a relatively small adverse impact on large-scale farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of intensive poultry breeding in China, the demand for poultry feed raw materials is increasing rapidly. However, the shortage of cereal feed and the persistently high price make it urgent for poultry feed production industry to explore cheaper energy alternative feed. Cassava has the characteristics of high yield, rich starch and fiber, high energy value, etc. It can replace corn or other energy feed in poultry breeding. The effective use of cassava products has been proved to reduce the feed cost of poultry production. However, the utilization of cassava is limited by many factors, such as low protein and anti-nutritional factors. Using correct processing and scientific formula, the addition level of cassava in poultry diet can be improved. In this paper, the nutritional characteristics, feed utilization, and application of cassava in poultry diet were reviewed, which provided a reference for the application of cassava in poultry diet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the intensive development of animal husbandry, the demand for feed soybean meal increases. In order to promote the development of animal husbandry and ensure the supply and quality safety of feed in China, it is necessary to reduce the proportion of soybean meal and increase the development of protein feed resources and the supply of highquality feed. Cottonseed meal has high protein content, and the vitamin content is similar to that of soybean meal. Compared with soybean meal, cottonseed meal has a wide range of sources and is more affordable. However, cottonseed meal contains gossypol, which limits its application in animal production. Therefore, the dephenolization technology of cottonseed meal, the application of cottonseed meal instead of soybean meal in animal production and matters needing attention are summarized in the paper, which provides a reference for resource utilization of cottonseed meal, reducing livestock and poultry breeding cost and improving animal product quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important reasons restricting the rapid development of animal husbandry in China is the shortage of protein raw materials. Urtica cannabina L. is a perennial herb rich in nutrient component and can be seen as feed to develop and utilize. The paper mainly studies the application in pigs, cattle, sheep and chicken as well as gives suggestions on the development and utilization of Urtica cannabina L., aiming to provide reference for the subsequent research and application of Urtica cannabina L. as an unconventional feed resource in livestock and poultry breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has a huge output of vegetables and fruits, and processed vegetable and fruit residue is rich in nutrients, rich in crude protein, crude fiber, vitamins, polyphenols, polysaccharides, flavonoids and other components, but it is not easy to preserve and has poor palatability, so it can not be directly used as animal feed. Screening of high-quality yeast and other probiotics can improve the nutritional value of vegetable and fruit residue feed and reduce feed cost, which has a positive effect on fruit and vegetable processing industry and livestock and poultry breeding industry. The paper reviewed the yeast species screening, fermentation technology and application of fermented vegetable and fruit residue in animal feed, aiming to provide reference for the research and application of fermented vegetable and fruit residue in livestock and poultry breeding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a large country of livestock and poultry breeding, China needs to timely solve the large amount of livestock and poultry manure produced every year. Composting technology, as the most widely used means of manure management, still has an influence on serious carbon and nitrogen loss, and environmental pollution. Based on the comprehensive reading of dozens of domestic and foreign literatures, this paper analyzed seven factors affecting carbon and nitrogen storage in the process of livestock manure composting, including pH value, ventilation, surface coverage, carbon nitrogen ratio, moisture, temperature, especially the types and mechanism of composting additives. It can reduce the loss of carbon and nitrogen in the composting process and environmental pollution, and improve the quality of composting through the regulation of various composting factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high-quality development of animal husbandry is necessary support to promote rural revitalization, and also key to building Chinese path to modernization. From perspective of connotation and era positioning, animal husbandry refers to future development of animal husbandry towards ecology, safety, and other aspects to achieve highquality and efficient development, comprehensively improve quality and quantity of social livestock and poultry product supply. Facing Chinese path to modernization, high-quality development of China's animal husbandry not only conforms to goal orientation of ecological and open cooperation in new era, but also follows Chinese law of economic and industrial layout. Therefore, it is proposed to consolidate the foundation and accelerate construction of modern livestock and poultry breeding and breeding industry. Improve security and establish an animal epidemic prevention system. Suggestions on strengthening competition and improving animal husbandry policies and measures to better play the supporting role of high-quality development of animal husbandry in process of Chinese path to modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural heating is one of the main sources of carbon emissions in northern China. In this study, the“26+2”Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei air pollution transmission corridor urban agglomeration designated by the Winter Clean Heating Plan in the Northern Region (2017—2021) was used as the study area. Based on the framework of“estimating potential biomass energy-calculating alternative traditional fuel resources conversion-evaluating pollutant and carbon emission reduction effect”, the potential of biomass energy conversion and clean heating of crop straw and livestock and poultry excrement were quantitatively analyzed. Based on the panel data in 2019, the biomass energy potentials of crop straws and livestock and poultry emissions were considered. The biomass potential of these wastes indicate a reduction compared to the 6.66 million tons of standard coal or 5.5 billion m³ of natural gas, with emission reductions of approximately 0.21 million tons of pollutants (SO2, NOx) and 17.01 million tons of CO2 when fully exploited. In this study, the spatial distribution of biomass energy utilization potential of various crop straw and livestock manure in 28 prefecture-level cities (municipalities) in the study area and the effects of clean heating and emission reduction in each province were analyzed. Studies have shown that wheat and maize have the highest potential for resource utilization. The biomass energy utilization potential of the breeding industry was higher than that of planting industry, and the poultry breeding industry was the highest. The quantitative results could provide a useful reference for promoting the use of biomass energy to replace traditional fuels such as coal for clean heating in rural areas of“26 + 2”typical areas and exploring the development path from“agricultural waste”to“rural heating source”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guangdong Province is one of the largest agricultural regions in China, in addition to the robust economy. Agricultural development has been accelerated to ensure the food security in recent years. The agricultural non-point source pollution has been triggered by the large-scale investments in chemical fertilizers, pesticides, plastic mulch, and the rapid development of the livestock and poultry breeding industry. The purpose of this study is to unveil the emission quantity and sources of agricultural non-point source pollutants in Guangdong Province, elucidate the main characteristics and development trends of agricultural non-point source pollution, and thereby propose control measures targeting the primary pollutant sources. In this study, the emission coefficient was proposed to estimate the number of various pollutants that emitted by agriculture, livestock and poultry breeding, and aquaculture in Guangdong Province of China from 1991 to 2021. The data was also collected to better understand the agricultural development in the fertilization, arable land area, pig, cattle, poultry and aquaculture. The main causes were then determined for the agricultural non-point source pollution and their changing trends over time. The results show that: 1) An upward trend was found in the total discharges of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH3 -N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) from the agricultural sources. The discharges of various pollutants decreased slightly since 2018, due to the reducing use of chemical fertilizer. The amount of fertilizer was applied per unit area more than twice the international average level. It is very necessary to reduce the chemical fertilizer use for the high efficiency. The discharges of COD, NH3 -N, TN, and TP from the agricultural sources increased to 1.9, 1.9, 1.7, and 2.2 times, respectively, in 2021, compared with 1991. 2) The primary contributors to the agricultural non-point source pollution were the planting, livestock and poultry breeding industries. The planting industry was contributed the most to the nitrogen discharges, accounting for 48% of NH3 -N losses, and 52% of total nitrogen losses from the agricultural sources, respectively. In addition, the water pollution that caused by the planting industry was mainly from the application of chemical fertilizers. The livestock and poultry breeding industry was the primary source of COD and TP discharge from the agricultural sources. Specifically, 90% and 51% of the total COD and TP discharges from agricultural sources were from the livestock and poultry breeding sector, respectively. The number of pollutants that discharged by the large-scale farming were accounted for more than 70% of the total pollutants discharged by the livestock and poultry breeding industry. Among different types of livestock and poultry, pigs were contributed the most to the emission of various pollutants, followed by poultry. Different pollutants that emitted by the aquaculture industry were accounted for between 10% and 16% of total emissions from agricultural sources. Aquaculture was ever increasing every year. Moreover, the effluent that produced by aquaculture (particularly mariculture) was challenging to clean up. Consequently, the number of pollutants that discharged into water from aquaculture sources will increase over time, indicating the increasing share of the total emissions from agricultural sources. Therefore, it is urgent to find the solutions for the waste disposal of large-scale pig farms. Also, the pollutant discharges from aquaculture needs to be considered. The finding can also provide a strong reference for the decision-making in the agricultural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has abundant edible mushroom resources, and the annual production of edible mushroom residue is huge. Edible mushroom residue has high nutritional value and is rich in active substances such as flavonoids, saponins, and sterols, which have certain medicinal value. Developing edible mushroom residue in a reasonable way as feed for livestock and poultry production can significantly improve the production performance of livestock and poultry, improve the immune and antioxidant capacity of livestock and poultry. Part of the edible mushroom residue can also promote the digestive system function of livestock and poultry, affect the structure of intestinal microbiota, improve the digestion and utilization rate of nutrients, have high application research value in animal husbandry. The article aims to analyze the nutritional value and feeding methods of edible mushroom residue, summarize its impact on the economic benefits of livestock and poultry production and breeding, providing reference for the recycling and utilization of edible mushroom residue resources, and providing new insights for solving the problem of protein feed shortage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese medicine is widely used in disease prevention and control, and a lot of Chinese medicine residue is produced in China every year. If these residues are not properly disposed of, they will cause damage to the environment and waste resources. The application of fermented Chinese medicine residue in the feed industry can not only alleviate the problem of feed resource shortage, but also improve the performance of livestock and poultry production. The paper reviews the fermentation process of Chinese medicine residue, the advantages of fermentation and its application in livestock and poultry production, providing reference for the resource utilization of Chinese medicine residues, reducing the cost of livestock and poultry breeding and improving the quality of livestock products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newcastle disease (ND) is one of the diseases that seriously damage the health of poultry and is widely prevalent worldwide. It is characterized by high fever, respiratory distress, dysentery, neurological disorders, and mucosal hemorrhage, seriously threatening the growth and reproduction of poultry and production of poultry meat. Newcastle disease is caused by Newcastle disease virus (NDV), which has been prevalent for nearly 100 years and can infect more than 200 species of poultry, including chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons. It has many genotypes, and the variable genotypes bring great difficulties to the prevention and control of ND. The migration of birds plays an important role in the cross-border spread of the virus, resulting in Newcastle disease outbreaks in various regions of China, bringing huge economic losses to the poultry industry and seriously restricting the healthy development of the poultry breeding industry. In view of the wide distribution of NDV and the strong host mobility, it makes an important epidemic disease threatening the poultry breeding industry. Therefore, to understand the prevalence of NDV in China, the study analyzes its molecular epidemiology and the spatial and temporal distribution of each genotype, and it is found that ND in China is mainly distributed in southern China, such as Guangxi and Guangdong, eastern China, such as Jiangsu and Anhui, and northwestern China, such as Shaanxi and Gansu. The highly pathogenic Class Ⅱ strains isolated from these regions include multiple genotypes, with genotype Ⅱ and genotype Ⅶ strains being the main prevalent strains. The collation and analysis of NDV prevalence data provide reference data for epidemic prevention control, and vaccine development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental water pollution has become one of the key factors that constrain the development of urban and rural areas in China. However, the identification of high-risk priority control regions and the development of control schemes for the total amount of water pollutants still lack systematic studies. In this study, the risk prevention potential index of residents, the government, and enterprises was incorporated to construct a comprehensive water environmental risk evaluation system based on the“pressure-state-response”and to identify the risk control levels of each control unit. On this basis, a multi-objective waste load allocation model was constructed, and a water pollutant load（NH3-N）distribution scheme was constructed in Hongya County, Sichuan Province, China. The results showed that Hongchuan Town and Yuping Town, located in the lower reaches of the Qingyi River, were high-risk control units. Hongchuan Town was significantly affected by industrial wastewater discharge, while Yuping Town was jointly affected by large-scale livestock and poultry breeding, as well as industrial wastewater discharge. According to the comprehensive optimal distribution scheme, the reduction rates of ammonia nitrogen in Hongchuan Town and Yuping Town were 19.7% and 18.9%, respectively, while the total reduction rate in Hongya County was 16.3%. This study not only achieves fair and efficient reduction of water pollutants in each control unit, but also obtains a higher regional total reduction rate, which can provide a scientific reference for regional water environment management strategy formulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has extensive livestock and poultry industries with substantial production and use of veterinary antibacterials. The longterm and massive use of veterinary antibacterials causes environmental pollution, increases bacterial resistance, and elevates safety risks for livestock, poultry, and agricultural products, further threatening human health. In this paper, we review the use of veterinary antibacterials in livestock and poultry breeding from 2009 to 2019 in China. The characteristics of the usage of veterinary antibacterials were analyzed. The findings show that the proportion of consumption of veterinary antibacterials in veterinary chemicals was 69.6%~74.1%. The utilization of veterinary antibacterials reached a maximum in 2014, and then decreased yearly. The main types of veterinary antibacterials are tetracycline, chlortetracycline, and oxytetracycline; chlortetracycline and oxytetracycline are mainly used to promote growth. Furthermore, the analysis of the antibiotics residue in different foods showed that the detection rates of antibiotics in milk, cultured fish, and vegetables were as high as 90.9%~100%. The average residue of quinolone in cultured fish was 725.13 μg·kg-1, which exceeds the national food safety limit standard (100 μg·kg-1). Additionally, we summarize the situation of antibiotic residues in the environment and the emergence and mechanism of bacterial resistance. The effects of the massive use of antibiotics on animal and human health are discussed. Ultimately, management suggestions and strategies on the prevention of antibiotics pollution are proposed in terms of source, use, emission, and remediation to help control antibiotic pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pigeon industry is emerging after the "three birds" in the special poultry breeding. Pigeon breeding has also been well developed over more than 30 years in the animal husbandry industry in China. In this study, an improved RetinaNet model was proposed for the individual detection of caged pigeons during the breeding period. An accurate and rapid individual detection in the cage was realized to improve the breeding efficiency. The original image dataset was first collected in the Golden Green Pigeon Breeding Base in Xingning, Guangdong Province, China. The images were then enhanced by the vertically flipped, adding noise, and brightness. As such, the training and validation datasets were expanded to five times the original images. A total of 5 420 pigeon images were selected to be labeled, where 5 190 images were set as the training and validation set, and 230 as the test set. The model was improved using the RetinaNet. The Convolutional Block Attention Module (CBAM) was introduced before the classification and regression sub-networks. As such, the information of the feature map was enhanced for the better model. Two backbone networks (ResNet50 and ResNext50) were selected to compare to the Feature Pyramid Networks (FPN) with different layers on the individual detection of pigeons in the breeding period. 11 experiments were then performed on the same training, validation, and test set under the operating system of Ubuntu18.04 and graphics card: NVIDIA TITAN RTX. The commonly-used SSD and YOLOv3 in the one-stage object detection were selected to compare with the RetinaNet model framework in this case. Eight experiments were also carried out to optimize the model using the same dataset and training parameters. The results showed that the mAP of the original RetinaNet model structure was 65.44%, which was 3.21, 13.7, 4.47, 6.24, and 3.54 percentage points higher than that of SSD, YOLOv3, YOLOv4, YOLOv5s, and YOLOv5m, respectively. The overall detection effect of the original RetinaNet model was better than that of SSD and YOLOv3. Moreover, the number of FPN layers increased the detection scale, thereby effectively improving the recall of small objects. The missed detection of pigeon eggs was also reduced in the actual breeding environment using the original RetinaNet. Meanwhile, the CBAM was introduced before the classification and regression sub-network, in order to promote the detection effect on the adhesion pigeons. The improved RetinaNet model presented an average accuracy of 95.88%, 79.51%, and 67.29% on the test set of pigeons, squabs, and pigeon eggs, respectively, which were 2.16, 21.74, and 22.48 percentage points higher than the original RetinaNet model. There was also much more improvement in the average precision of adhesive squab and small pigeon eggs. Consequently, the improved model can also be expected to present the best performance. The real-time monitoring of individual changes can be achieved in the pigeon cage. The finding can provide the technical support for precision breeding, in order to timely detect and adjust the improper behavior of production management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Manure slurry is a mixture of urine, feces, flushing water, and disinfectant in the livestock and poultry breeding industry. About two billion tons of manure slurry can be produced in China every year. Among them, the composition varies greatly, due to the complex sources. There are many influencing factors on the composition of manure slurry, such as the seasons, regions, breeding scale, fecal cleaning, and manure slurry treatment. Currently, the fixed composition value cannot accurately be calculated the amount of manure slurry, when returning to the field. Therefore, it is urgent to develop an accurate, and rapid detection system suitable for the compositions in the manure slurry on site. Fortunately, Near-Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy can offer a great potential to detect manure composition at present. Nevertheless, most reports were usually focused on the near-infrared spectrometer at the large-scale laboratory level. This kind of instrument can be confined to the application of near-infrared spectroscopy analysis in fields, due to the large bulk volume, low portability, and high price. The near-infrared spectrometer can be further developed towards the miniaturization for the technical and cost feasibility during on-site detection, particularly with the development of Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS) and Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS) in recent years. In addition to the need for a stable and reliable hardware system, the calibration model is another important application premise of near-infrared technology. But, there is a great challenge to establish the calibration model using cloud sharing technology. It is very necessary to access the shared resources via the various data computing services anytime, anywhere, and on-demand through the Internet. In this study, a micro NIR onsite and rapid system was proposed to detect the composition of manure slurry during field return using a calibration model under cloud sharing. A complete function was also achieved for the data acquisition, upload, prediction and storage at the same time, according to the design scheme of "micro NIR sensor + calibration model cloud sharing + Android client + mobile network". The micro NIR sensor was first used to collect the spectral data of the measured sample, then to transmit the data into the Android client through the Bluetooth protocol, and finally to the cloud server through the mobile network. A calibration model was deployed in the cloud server to calculate the received spectral data. A quantitative prediction was obtained to further send back to the Android client in real time. A rapid detection was realized for the ten parameters of manure slurry compositions, such as the Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TP), Total Potassium (TK), ammonium nitrogen (NH4 +-N), nitrate nitrogen (NO3 --N), amide nitrogen (CONH2-N), Available Phosphorus (AP), Available Potassium (AK), Organic Matter (OM), and pH value. The prediction relative errors of AK, TN, AP, TP, pH, NH4 +-N, and TK in the manure slurry were less than 10%, and the rest of OM, CONH2-N, and NO3 --N were between 10%-18%. Consequently, the micro NIR technology combined with the calibration model in cloud sharing can be expected to realize the onsite, rapid and accurate detection of various compositions in the manure slurry, particularly for the full sharing of the quantitative model. Moreover, the broad market prospect can be gained for the practical application, due to the portable micro NIR sensor, the simple operation of the Android client, and the lower cost of the system. There is also no need for the professional requirements of the users in the cloud sharing of the calibration model. The finding can provide data support for the high precision return of manure slurry to the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ammonia is the only alkaline gas in the atmosphere. Reducing ammonia emissions plays an important role in controlling atmospheric pollution. Livestock and poultry breeding industry is an important source of ammonia emissions. Scientific assessment of ammonia emissions and reduction potential in different links is of great significance. In this paper, the ammonia emission factors of different livestock and poultry breeding houses in China and abroad, the main emission reduction technologies and efficiency were summarized. Combined with the number of mechanical ventilation farms and the animal population of major livestock and poultry obtained from the second national pollution source census, the ammonia emission reduction potential of exhaust air from mechanical ventilation livestock farms in China was analyzed. The results show that the reduction potential of ammonia emission from mechanically ventilated livestock houses in China is 265.6 thousand tons; pigs, laying hens and broilers were the three main sources of livestock and poultry, and their emission reduction potential were 101.8 thousand tons, 77.3 thousand tons and 67.5 thousand tons, respectively. The emission reduction potential of the three livestock and poultry types accounted for 92.8 %. Regionally, the main implementing regions are East China, South Central and North China, with ammonia emission reduction potential accounting for 35.1%, 26.9% and 14.9%, respectively. It is proposed to carry out the construction of ammonia emission reduction facilities in mechanical ventilation barn of pig, laying hens and broiler, which can provide guarantee for the national ammonia emission reduction and the improvement of atmospheric environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term addition of antibiotics in animal feed leads to problems of drug residues and bacterial resistance, which affects the quality of livestock products, makes great threat to human health, and damages the ecological environment. Feeding antibiotic substitutes are highly praised for their safety, high efficiency, low residue, low pollution, and can improve the growth performance of animals, improve the intestinal health of animals and regulate the immune system of the host. The paper reviews the action mechanism of enzyme preparation, antimicrobial peptide, probiotics, prebiotics and biosynbiotics and their application in livestock and poultry production, providing theoretical basis for the sustainable development of feed industry in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of animal manures has been produced in China in recent years, due to the ever-increasing demand for livestock and poultry breeding. Improper disposal can pose potential environmental and health risks. Alternatively, hydrothermal carbonization has been one of the thermochemical technologies to convert the waste biomass into high value-added products without drying raw materials. Therefore, it is a highly promising potential to convert the animal manures into high value-added carbon-rich materials using hydrothermal carbonization, in order to prevent environmental pollution and pathogenic microbe spread from the random accumulation. This review aims to clarify the effects of temperature, liquid-solid ratio, reaction residence time, and additives on the yield and physicochemical properties of hydrochars, according to the main components of animal manures under hydrothermal carbonization. Some mechanisms were evaluated to determine the specific reaction pathways, including hydrolysis, dehydration, decarboxylation, aromatization, Mailard reaction, and polymerization. An interaction was also identified between various factors and reaction kinetics. Among them, the reaction temperature was the most critical factor affecting the reaction pathways and characteristics of products. A mathematical model was then established to describe the hydrothermal carbonization, further evaluating the application effect on laboratory and industrial scale. There was an increase in the temperature and residence time during hydrothermal carbonization, leading to the hydrochar with a higher carbon content and calorific value, but the yield decreased significantly. Furthermore, the volatile content of hydrochar decreased significantly after hydrothermal carbonization, which was related to the reduction of hydroxyl, and carboxyl functional groups. The heavy metals and phosphorus were often fixed in the hydrochars in more stable forms, whereas, nitrogen and potassium were transferred to the liquid products. Medium temperature (180-220 ℃) for a short time (0.5-2 h) was conducive to maintaining the nutrient elements in the hydrochar for the better capacity of soil water holding. Moreover, the hydrochar also varied in the surface functional groups and pore structure, thereby serving as the potential biofuel, adsorbent, soil amendment, and precursor of functional materials. More importantly, the addition of CaO was greatly contributed to the pH and yield of hydrochar in the process of hydrothermal carbonization, together with the improved pore structure and the number of surface functional groups. As such, the acid increased the calorific value, specific surface area, fixed carbon content, and H/C, O/C atomic ratio of hydrochar. Co-hydrothermal carbonization had avoided the weakness of hydrochar produced by a single feedstock with high ash and heavy metals content, which were possibly limited factors for the potential applications in energy materials and soil amendment. Consequently, the porous carbon materials with high specific surface area, excellent pore structure, and adjustable surface chemical properties can be widely expected to prepare in the activation and modification process with the livestock manure hydrochars as a precursor. Microwave-assisted hydrothermal carbonization of animal manures can also realize rapid heating to shorten the reaction time for the higher product yield. A further study needs to be focused on the economic feasibility and large-scale application. This finding can also provide a strong reference to promote the application potential of hydrothermal carbonization in the treatment of animal manures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government has planned to hit the carbon emission peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. In this case, it is a high demand to reduce emissions, especially greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among them, the livestock industry has been the greatest GHG emission source in agriculture sectors, accounting for 80% of total agricultural non-carbon dioxide emissions. The Emissions Gap Report 2021 has released that the methane emissions can be reduced from fossil fuels and agricultural wastes, further, slowing down global warming in the shortterm. Therefore, a low-carbon livestock industry can also make a great contribution to achieving the carbon neutrality. In this study, a systematic review was made on the agricultural carbon emissions in China, with emphasis on the sources of GHG emissions in animal production systems. Some suggestions were also proposed to reduce the GHG emissions from the livestock and poultry. The carbon emission of the agriculture sector has been the third-largest source of GHG emissions, accounting for about 6.7% of the total emissions in China. The GHG emissions of animal respiration, ruminant intestinal fermentation, and manure are regarded as the direct sources, whereas, the indirect GHG emissions include feed production and processing, the energy consumption of equipment and facilities, as well as animal product processing and transportation. Enteric fermentation has been the largest source of GHG emissions from livestock, according to the global livestock environmental assessment model. Finally, some technologies were also summarized to reduce the GHG emissions from the livestock and poultry. The low-carbon path contained three parts, the source, the process, and the end, according to the whole life cycle of animal husbandry production. Correspondingly, there was a gradual increase in the indirect GHG emissions via energy consumption during the breeding process of livestock and poultry, particularly with the increase in the production and demand of livestock. Moreover, one of the key strategies is necessary to conduct the financial investment and the national incentive mechanism, thereby achieving carbon neutrality. Therefore, this review can greatly contribute to promoting carbon neutrality for the sustainable development of the livestock industry. Four recommendations were made as follows: 1) To monitor the GHG emissions from the livestock industry throughout the entire process and scientifically evaluate GHG emissions and reduction potential of each link; 2) To strengthen the clean production in animal husbandry, including basic and innovative research, further to promote the animal husbandry in a green, low-carbon, and efficient way; 3) To develop the green and low-carbon utilization of manure resources from the livestock and poultry production; and 4) To integrate the modern information technology for the low-carbon emission reduction in the digitally empowered livestock industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dongting Lake Plain is one of the most important food production bases in China. However, the non-point source pollution has posed a great threat to social and economic development in the cultivated land, due to a large number of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that have widely been used unreasonably during agricultural production in recent years. It is also very serious for the pollution of livestock and poultry breeding. Taking 21 county-level administrative units in part of Hunan Province in the Dongting Lake Plain as the research area, the inventory analysis was made to construct three types of pollution units for the farmland fertilizer, human and livestock excrement, as well as farmland solid wastes. Some parameters were calculated, including the total emission and intensity of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP). The temporal and spatial evolution of non-point source pollution was determined in the cultivated land, further to analyze the movement trajectory of emission intensity barycenter and the degree of spatial agglomeration, using the center of gravity model and the cold/hot spot analysis. The results showed that: 1) There was a great decrease in the total emissions and emission intensity of COD, TN, and TP from the cultivated land non-point source pollution in the study area from 2005 to 2019. It was related to the promotion of ecological farming, soil testing formula technology, as well as the scale control of livestock and poultry breeding. There were also the spatial distribution characteristics of "east>west>central" in the pollution degree for three types of pollutants. 2) Three types of pollutants all moved in the longitude and latitude directions, but there was a more obvious in the east-west direction, where the barycenter of emission intensity presented a tendency to run westward. The adjustment and implementation of pollution prevention policies were attributed to the shift of the barycenter of the emission intensity in the three pollutants. 3) There were significant differences in the spatial patterns of the three pollutants. Specifically, the COD pollution was significantly different, TP was followed, and TN was the smallest in various regions. Hot spots were mostly distributed in the east of the Dongting Lake plain around the basin. The main reason was that these areas were on the edges of the intersection of the Dongting Lake and the Yangtze River, with advantageous location, rapid urbanization and industrialization, and stronger arable land utilization. The cold spots were mostly distributed in Nanxian and the surrounding areas in the middle of the Dongting Lake Plain. The concept of ecological civilization was contributed greatly to the distribution. As a result, much attention needs to pay to the treatment of non-point source pollution in the cultivated land and surrounding counties. Consequently, the non-point source pollution was improved in the cultivated land in the process of ecological civilization construction. There was also a great difference in the degree and control of cultivated land non-point source pollution in various regions. The finding can provide a sound theoretical basis to manage the non-point source pollution of cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pollution production coefficient of sheep-breeding is lacking in recent years, since most previous studies focused mainly on pigs, cattle, and chickens in the livestock and poultry breeding industries. This study aims to systematically explore the producing characteristics of pollutants from large-scale sheep farms in Northern China, and thereby to construct the pollution production coefficient for the sheep breeding industry. Three typical sheep farms were selected for sentinel monitoring experiments in Northeast, North and Northwest China. The sheep were divided into four groups according to the feeding stages, including the nursling, fattening, mature, and barren stages. In each group, five normal, healthy and similar weight sheep were randomly selected using the age and gender of different sheep breeds. A metabolic cage was adopted in the experiment, where feed and water were supplied regularly and quantitatively. The trial period was from July to September 2019. The monitoring items included the daily feed intake, water intake, as well as the amount of feces and urine of each sheep. The feed of each group, the feces and urine samples of each sheep were collected for 3 consecutive days to determine physical and chemical indicators for the pollution production coefficients. The results showed that there was great difference in the regularity of pollutant generation for the breed, age, and gender in a sheep farm. The daily feed and water intake of Liaoning cashmere goat in northeast China, the crossbred F1 of Dorper and Hu sheep in north China, and the Tan sheep in northwest China were 1.45, 1.29, and 2.24 kg, while, 1.82、2.73, and 0.72 L, respectively. The daily production of feces and urine for the Liaoning cashmere goat, the crossbred F1 sheep, and Tan sheep were 0.69, 0.61, and 0.94 kg, 0.77, 1.19, and 0.42 L, respectively. The daily fresh weight of feces and fresh weight of feed, dry weight of feces and dry weight of feed, urine volume and water consumption all showed significant positive correlation (0.8

Frequent outbreak of epidemics is one of the major factors driving the poultry industry. Much stricter environmental regulations are on the way, particularly on tensions relations between individual farmers and global markets. Modern farms and agricultural operations have far differently than those a few decades ago, such as previous retail breeding mode. A large-scale breeding has become an alternatively effective way to improve the industrial competitiveness, as the advancements in new technology, and the rising cost of aquaculture. In large-scale breeding of livestock and poultry, the agricultural mechanization has been the key to improve the quality and efficiency of laying hen industry. It is necessary to explore the substitution relationship between breeding machine for laying hens and human labor in the development of large-scale agriculture and policy making. In this study, taking the provincial data in the small-scale (300-1 000 heads), medium-scale (>1 000-10 000 heads), and large-scale (more than 10 000 heads) from 2004 to 2018, the substitution elasticity of machine to labor was measured across the spatial scales and regions (east, middle, west and north-east part of China) using the function of transcending logarithm production. The specific data was collected from the National Agricultural Product Cost And Income Data Compilation (2005-2019). The results show that: 1)The industry of laying hens breeding in China behaved a trend of industrial machine substituting human labor, indicating great differences between various spatial scales and regions; 2) The substitution elasticity of machine to labor were 0.988 4, 0.303 3, 0.343 5 in the small, medium, and large scales, respectively. Specifically, the mean value for the substitution elasticity of machine to labor in the small-scale laying hens breeding increased from 0.277 3 to 1.379 1 from 2004 to 2018, but there was a large annual fluctuation. In the medium-scale laying hens breeding, the mean value for the substitution elasticity of machine to labor increased from 0.171 9 to 0.436 5 from 2004 to 2018, and there were relatively small rise and annual fluctuations. In the large-scale laying hens breeding, the mean value for the substitution elasticity of machine to labor increased from 0.293 1 to 0.306 9 from 2004 to 2018, but there was small annual fluctuations. 3) There were great differences in the substitution elasticity of machine to labor in different regions. The layout of laying hens industry was relatively stable during the measured period. The location advantages can be continued in the east region of laying hens breeding, in order to promote the “south westward” trend, and thereby to optimize the industrial layout area. In the future, an emphasis can be put on the coordinated development of large-scale mechanization in laying hens breeding. Three recommendations can be made during this time: 1) To encourage scientific and technological innovation in breeding equipment, further to upgrade specialized equipment for the substitution of mechanized breeding to human labor; 2) To make great efforts to enhance the mechanization of small-scale and medium-scale farms in laying hens breeding, while to actively guide large-scale farmers in mechanical innovation of breeding technology; 3) To strengthen the particular policy focus considering local environmental conditions. The findings can be used to strengthen the national policy, according to the replacing characteristics of industrial machine to human labor, and further to provide a sound reference for the sustainable development in laying hens industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recently years, China's livestock and poultry breeding industry has gradually developed in the direction of large-scale and centralization. With the continuous expansion of the scale of breeding, the problem of rapid increase of animal slurry emissions is becoming more and more seriously. Animal slurry were applicated reasonably can not only solve the problem of pollution, but also improving soil nutrients. There is a large amount of ammonium nitrogen in animal slurry. Unreasonable application will lead to the emission of a large amount of ammonia gas from animal slurry into the soil. In generally, the animal slurry should be stored for a period of time and then returned to the field. During the storage period, methane (CH4) emission was reduced, and the fertilizer efficiency of stored manure may improve. Acidification is a way to improve storage quality. At present, there are more studies abroad on the effect of treating animal slurry return to the field. However, the effect of the acidification storage of animal slurry on soil nutrients has been rarely reported in China. In order to explore the application effect about fresh (MS), acidification (HMS), storage (SMS), and acidification storage (SHSM) of animal slurry to field. The pot experiments were conducted to study the effect of animal slurry on soil nutrients and crop yield by using concentrated sulfuric acid and long-term storage of animal slurry. Two control groups were set up for the experiment: Animal slurry before and after storage, and animal slurry before and after acidification of H2SO4. Four different levels (5%, 25%, 50% and 100%) were set for each treatment. The results indicated that the concentration of animal slurry to the field should be strictly controlled (the level at 25%-50%). Animal slurry stored was benefit to the total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) of soil nutrients. After storage, the total nutrients (TN, TP, and total potassium (TK)) increased by 11.32%-73.16%, and the crop yield of SMS(100%) increased by 21.22%. However, after the acidification with H2SO4, the effect of animal slurry on the total soil nutrients changed significantly. Compared with MS, the TP content of HMS increased by 20.21%, 3.45%, 14.10% and 12.82%, and the content of available phosphorus increased by 64.59%, 0.48%, 2.66% and 19.69% at the level of 5%-100%, respectively. The crop yield of HMS(25%) increased by 27.94%. On the basis of the H2SO4 acidized and stored, the TN content of soil increased very significantly (P<0.05), the TN content increased by 20.65%, 25.14%, 46.99% and 82.98% at four different level. Acidification and storage processing to reduce the loss of TN have promoting effect to the increase of soil available nutrients, especially for the effect of available nitrogen significantly (P<0.05), and the crop yield of SHMS(25%) increased by 13.63%. Reasonable application of stored manure slurry and low concentration of animal slurry acidified by H2SO4 can increase crop yield. In generally, the application of stored animal slurry can promote the total nutrients content of soil, promoting the accumulation of phosphorus, and increasing the crop production. However, it is not suitable to apply too high concentration of animal slurry, which will inhibit the yield of crops. The application amount should be controlled within the range of 25% as far as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has a drastic change in structures of agricultural production and rural economy in China over the recent years. Pollution induced by agrochemical applications, livestock and poultry breeding, straw incineration in agricultural production has been increasing, and agricultural pollution has overtaken industrial pollution becoming the main water pollution source in China. However, efforts to ameliorate these pollutions are difficult to implement because of a lack of understanding of their associated costs. This is one reason why agricultural pollution control is still regulation-based rather than market-based as has been widely used in controlling industrial pollution. Shadow price of agricultural pollutant is a key to help policy-make strategies to remediate agricultural pollutants. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by taking agricultural data measured from 1978 to 2017 at provincial scale in China as an example. We estimated the quadratic directional distance function, revenue function and the costs of pollution in agricultural production. The results showed that the shadow prices of total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and COD had reduced by 26.8%, 35.9% and 59.7%, respectively, from 1978 to 2017, having undergone through free development stage, reform promotion stage, market regulation stage and policy incentive stage. Because of the difference in natural and socio-economic conditions between the provinces, there was a noticeable spatial variation in shadow prices of agricultural pollutants in them. In the northwest China, the shadow price of TN was the lowest, while in the southwest China, the shadow price of TN and TP was the highest and the price of COD was the lowest. In east China the shadow price of TP was the lowest and the price of COD was the highest. The average annual costs of pollution in agricultural production was 76.06 billion Yuan per year, accounting for 10.8% of the value of the total agricultural production. In particular, the costs of pollution in Ningxia, Guizhou, Hebei, and Shandong accounted for more than 14% of the value of their total annual agricultural production. The long-term change in shadow price of agricultural pollutants and the costs of agricultural pollution in China indicated that agricultural production was complex and affected by individual and combined natural, social-economic and political factors. Agricultural policies should be made based on the requirement of the "two-oriented agriculture" development by reforming agricultural supply structure to improve quality and efficiency of the agricultural supply to avoid falling into the "profit pursuing policy" trap. Transformation of agricultural production should focus on improving land productivity and resource and labor use efficiency, along with reducing dependence on petrochemicals and remediating non-point agricultural pollutant. It also needs to consider resource conservation and environmental protection by developing circular, and ecological-friendly intensive agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]