Universidad de Buenos Aires Facultad de Ciencias...
This thesis analyses management practices in sport equine production farms in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina to minimize their environmental effects. This type of production was chosen due to its growing importance within the sector.Buenos Aires Province was selected not only because it is the pro...
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| Formato: | Tesis doctoral acceptedVersion |
| Lenguaje: | Español |
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Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias
2024
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| Acceso en línea: | http://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/cgi-bin/library.cgi?a=d&c=avaposgra&cl=CL1&d=HWA_7382 https://repositoriouba.sisbi.uba.ar/gsdl/collect/avaposgra/index/assoc/HWA_7382.dir/7382.PDF |
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| Sumario: | This thesis analyses management practices in sport equine production farms in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina to minimize their environmental effects. This type of production was chosen due to its growing importance within the sector.Buenos Aires Province was selected not only because it is the province which has more equines but also because it holds the main events of the industry, such as exhibitions and equestrian sport events. Research studies on\nenvironmental implications in equine production is scarce worldwide and\nunknown in Argentina.\n26 sport equine farms were analyzed, using a survey of 10 questions to gather\ninformation about the management on each farm. Research was focused on\nthe different ways of feeding the animals and the kind of forage horses receive,\nconsidering that one of the challenges in sport equine production is the strategy\nused for feeding horses. Farmers were asked about the disposal of manure\nand bedding residues considering the storage and disposal time. In the farms studied box beds are stored in solid state, and remain outdoors directly on the ground. Farms do not possess adequate storage facilities and they do not consider the amount or volume of material disposed or the time required before collection. A horse kept in a box will require from 5 to 10 bedding kilograms per day, which must be changed regularly. The discarded bed can increase manure volume two or three times, according to bed type used and management practices.\nThe factors causing environmental impact are linked to excretions quantity and chemical composition, which depend on the type and amount of feed consumed by the animal, bedding type and quantity, outdoor deposit (shavings bedding) storage times and climate conditions. Therefore, final bedding layout is a key\nissue for this production sustainability.\nIt has been deemed extremely important to determine the quality of water drunk by the equines in the 26 farms studied. To this end, water samples were taken and characterized through physical/chemical analysis. Equine growth,\ndevelopment and sports activities were also considered, as well as distance from the City of Buenos Aires to the farms studied. Considering trace elements levels in the air, soil and water have increased during the last decades in urban and suburban areas in different parts of the world, and in turn, they might reach groundwater through leaching processes or\nto superficial bodies of water through runoffs, As, Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb were measured\nin feed, water and box beds in the farms studied. Representative samples of farms in Pilar, Open Door, Exaltación de la Cruz, General Las Heras, Malvinas Argentinas, Moreno, Hurlingham, Cañuelas, Chivilcoy, Luján, SanAndrés de Giles y San Isidro were taken. These farms have between 11 and 410 equines each. The results obtained are shown in chapter 4 but they are hard to be compared due to the scarcity of studies with similar characteristics worldwide. This research study offers an overarching analysis of the environmental\nimplications and considers the inputs provided by the sport equine production to\nwater footprint, having into consideration water consumption in the context of the life cycle assessment (LCA). LCA would be the collection and evaluation of\nthe entries, results and potential environmental impacts of the product during its life cycle. It might contribute to the identification of opportunities to improve the sport equine production development, regarding environmental impact on the different stages. Processes, including the direct water use, such as, water volume consumed daily to keep their basic vital needs, and water used to clean the animals and farms, were identified. In this study, it can be observed that sport equines have a development\ndynamic in which they spend many hours in the boxes, releasing large amounts\nof defecation. Moreover, if we consider the lack of environmental regulations\nregarding the end use of bed boxes, the amount of water required for direct and\nindirect consumption, among other factors, it can be concluded that this\nproduction generates important environmental effects which should be reduced.Therefore, recommendations to minimize the environmental effects of the equine production are outlined. |
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