Cardiovascular load during cleaning and feeding tasks in pig and poultry farms of northeast India

Abstract

Background

Cleaning and feeding tasks are manually undertaken on animal and poultry farms. The assessment of the physical load on the cardiovascular system of the workers is necessary for work organization.

Objective

To assess the cardiovascular load among the workers during cleaning and feeding tasks in the pig and poultry farms.

Methods

Cardiovascular load among the workers was estimated in two farm types, i.e., pig and poultry, by assessing the heart rate (HR) and oxygen uptake (VO₂). The HR responses of 36 participants were measured for two tasks namely cleaning and feeding in the selected farms. The VO₂ responses of the participants were measured in laboratory conditions to develop the relationship between HR and VO₂.

Results

The mean working HR (HR_work) of the participants in the pig farms were 121 ± 4 and 102 ± 4 bpm during the cleaning and feeding tasks, respectively; the mean HR_work of the participants in the poultry farms were 125 ± 2 and 107 ± 1 bpm during the cleaning and feeding tasks, respectively. The mean working oxygen uptake (VO_2work) of the participants in the pig farms was lower than the poultry farms, and its values were 24.19 ± 1.76 and 14.56 ± 2.18 mL/kg/min during the cleaning and feeding tasks, respectively. The cardiovascular load is significantly (p < 0.001) different between the cleaning and feeding tasks for both farms.

Conclusions

Based on the HR_work data, the cleaning task is classified as heavy intensity work for both farm types. In contrast, the feeding task is categorized as light intensity work on pig farms but moderate on poultry farms.