Drainage of Animal Housing Units for Maximum Animal Welfare and Environmental Control Studies on Microbiological Safety and Drainage Behaviour

A novel drainage system and animal unit flooring system has recently been developed which maximises the comfort and welfare of animals housed on it and at the same time allows separation of urine and faeces, reducing the conversion of urea to ammonia and thus reducing nitrogen release to the atmosphere. The system is based on plastic void forming units originally designed for stormwater control purposes. These units are covered with a perforated foam, made from recycled foam waste, and a high strength textile. Cattle, goats, and horses have been preference tested on this surface and have been shown to prefer it to traditional straw covered flooring. Cattle spend a long time lying down on this surface and this can potentially increase milk yields. A robot is used to clean faeces off the floor continually and if it encounters an animal it will avoid it and return to that place later. Urine is filtered through the textile and is available for use as a liquid fertiliser. This paper reviews the construction of the system and report on the work done on both survival of mastitis-causing organisms in the fabric and foam layers and the drainage behaviour of liquids expressed from the foam by animal movements.