Effects of earth tube heat exchanger system on death rate of suckling and weanling pigs in South Korea

In the course of further shortage of fossil resources and high oil prices, the sustainability of livestock houses is becoming more important than ever. In recent years, earth tempering of stable air by means of an earth tube heat exchanger (ETHE) has attracted great attention as a sustainable air conditioning in pig houses. In this study, we investigate the beneficial effect of the low-cost ETHE system on the reduction of mortality rates of suckling and weanling pigs from the two swine farms in South Korea. Our study shows that the application of ETHE system on a mechanically ventilated suckling and weanling housing helped on alleviating adverse environmental conditions especially during the hottest and coldest period of the year by conditioning the air with its sustainable cooling and heating effect. H farm’s (with ETHE) weanling pig house was about 3℃ warmer than T farm (without ETHE) during winter. It also shows that H farm’s weanling pig house was about 2℃ cooler than T farm during summer. These findings indicate that H farm was warmer during winter and spring and cooler during summer seasons. During spring and summer, piglets housed in a mechanically ventilated housing with ETHE have greater chance to reach weaning stages compared to piglet housed in a typical mechanically ventilated animal housing, since average percentage death rate on H farm during these seasons was also seen more significantly lower compared to T farm. In addition to these, H farm’s weanling’s percentage death rate was also significantly lower during winter season compared to T farm. By providing optimal animal house climate, this study shows that ETHE system is proven to be effective system on reducing mortality rate in suckling and weanling pigs in South Korea.