LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF BROILER CHICKEN PRODUCTION

The environmental impacts of broiler chicken production are becoming increasingly relevant as the industry grows in importance. A suitable method for assessing the environmental impact of a process is life cycle assessment (ISO 14040:2006). A life cycle assessment of a broiler chicken farm in Hungary was conducted in this study, which compared the emissions of summer and winter rotations. The environmental burden was represented by five impact categories: acidification potential (AP), eutrophication potential (EP), global warming potential (GWP), ozone depletion potential (ODP) and human toxicity potential (HTP). The study's aim was to compare emissions between summer and winter rotations, as well as to identify and assess the most critical points in broiler chicken production. The results demonstrated that there is no substantial difference in emissions between winter and summer rotations for AP, EP, and HTP, however values for GWP and ODP impact categories are 10-10% higher in winter months. The higher value is attributable to the increased use of natural gas in the winter. When the critical points were examined, the feed-related processes were the ones that contribute the most to the impact categories.