Vegetative Environmental Buffers. Virginial Technical Note Biology Number 3. July 2011.

摘要

The Delmarva Peninsula is home to one of the countrys highest concentrations of poultry farms. The 2007 National Agricultural Statistical Service placed poultry and egg production as the most valued commodity in Virginia ($971 million). In Accomack County alone, there are 38 million broilers and other meat type chickens sold each year. Each farm houses approximately 25,000 birds per poultry house, and many farms have multiple houses. Poultry houses generate particulates (dust, bits of feathers, bedding, and manure), ammonia, and other odors that are expelled from the houses by the ventilation system. Particulates have been linked to respiratory effects in poultry workers, and can be a source of complaints from neighbors who live near poultry farms. Ammonia emitted from poultry houses has been linked to degradation of air and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.