Ammonia and GHG Emission Rates from Traditional and Vegetable Cats’ Litter: First Results in Reusing Vegetal By-Products and Probiotics in the Pet Industry

A cat litter box belongs to the basic furnishings of many cat households. Nevertheless, they are often a source of malodour, and therefore of frustration for both owners and animals. Unpleasant litter box odours result from the high ratio of ammonia ions in cat’s urine and faeces, which is caused by a protein-rich diet. Various types of litter have been developed over the years. Actually, most of them do not allow to reduce odour emissions, but simply mask unpleasant odours with perfumes or particularly absorbent materials, such as charcoal and bentonite clay. In this study, traditional clay litter (C) was compared with barley vegetable litter (Greencat Barley, Greencat SRL, Segrate) supplemented with a pool of probiotics tested at two different concentrations (T1 and T2). Emissions of ammonia, methane, nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide weremeasured using the static chamber method. Results showed that the barley vegetable litter, supplemented with probiotics, lowers ammonia emission in comparison with the control litter (32 mg/m2 h−1 for T1, 21 mg/m2 h−1 for T2 vs. 728 mg/m2 h−1 for C; p < 0.001). Also, carbon dioxide,methane and nitrous oxide emissions resulted reduced from the vegetable litter treated with the probiotics pool. Odour was lessened by 70%–90% in the barley litter, if compared to the traditional clay litter.