Researchers observed an 86% reduction in inhalable dust concentrations when horses were fed haylage instead of hay and stalls were bedded with wood shavings instead of straw. | Photo: iStock

Chickens are living healthier lives in housing equipped with new dust-reduction technology. While such technology could be useful for reducing dust in barns—especially for horses with equine asthma, which benefit from a low-dust environment—results from a new study suggest that the ionization technique isn’t effective in stables.

“We had hoped this method of ionization could benefit the air quality in horse stables and, indeed, it was a bit disappointing the system did not work as it has in small, confined spaces such as hatching cabinets for eggs,” said E.W. (Esther) Siegers, DVM, of the Utrecht University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, in the Netherlands.

“However, I think it was quite a challenge for the ionization device to cope with the amount of dust in a big horse stable,” Siegers said