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. 2021 Oct 27:8:750733.
doi: 10.3389/fvets.2021.750733. eCollection 2021.

Environmental Impacts of Pig and Poultry Production: Insights From a Systematic Review

Ines Andretta  1 , Felipe M W Hickmann  1   2 , Aline Remus  3 , Carolina H Franceschi  1 , Alexandre B Mariani  1 , Catiane Orso  1 , Marcos Kipper  4 , Marie-Pierre Létourneau-Montminy  2 , Candido Pomar  3
Affiliations

Environmental Impacts of Pig and Poultry Production: Insights From a Systematic Review

Ines Andretta et al. Front Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Pig and poultry production systems have reached high-performance levels over the last few decades. However, there is still room for improvement when it comes to their environmental sustainability. This issue is even more relevant due to the growing demand for food demand since this surplus food production needs to be met at an affordable cost with minimum impact on the environment. This study presents a systematic review of peer-reviewed manuscripts that investigated the environmental impacts associated with pig and poultry production. For this purpose, independent reviews were performed and two databases were constructed, one for each production system. Previous studies published in peer-reviewed journals were considered for the databases if the method of life cycle assessment (LCA) was applied to pig (pork meat) or poultry (broiler meat or table eggs) production to estimate at least the potential effects of climate change, measured as CO2-eq. Studies considering the cradle-to-farm gate were considered, as well as those evaluating processes up to the slaughterhouse or processor gate. The pig database comprised 55 studies, while 30 publications were selected for the poultry database. These studies confirmed feeding (which includes the crop cultivation phase, manufacturing processes, and transportation) as the main contributor to the environmental impact associated with pig and poultry production systems. Several studies evaluated feeding strategies, which were indicated as viable alternatives to mitigate the environmental footprint associated with both production chains. In this study, precision feeding techniques are highlighted given their applicability to modern pig and poultry farming. These novel feeding strategies are good examples of innovative strategies needed to break paradigms, improve resource-use efficiency, and effectively move the current productive scenario toward more sustainable livestock systems.

Keywords: broilers; climate change; environment; laying hens; livestock; precision feeding; sustainability; swine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study selection diagram for pig (A) or poultry (B) databases.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Location of the LCA studies focusing on pig (A) or poultry (B) production. Studies that simulated two or more countries, or even an entire continent, are not displayed in the figure.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Environmental impact categories evaluated in the LCA studies focusing on pig (A) or poultry (B) production systems, with dashed lines indicating the total number of publications included in each database.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Feed contribution to the potential impact of climate change in LCA studies focusing on pig (A) or poultry (B) production. Study codes are the same as those presented in Tables 1, 2 for pigs and poultry, respectively. Blank lines were used for studies where the exact information was not presented in the original publication (text or tables, as the exact value could not be obtained when information was presented in figures).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cumulative number of LCA studies focusing on pig or poultry production.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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