April 23, 2026

 

UK's ammonia pollution highly concentrated in areas with highest numbers of intensive pig, poultry farms

 

Ammonia pollution hotspots have been identified in areas with some of the greatest numbers of intensive pig and poultry farms in the United Kingdom, research has revealed.

 

A new map for the first time reveals the most severe concentrations of ammonia emissions are clustered in Lincolnshire, Herefordshire and Norfolk. These regions all have a high density of intensive poultry and pig units that drive dangerous levels of ammonia, according to researchers from Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) and Sustain.

 

The research comes as the UK government attempts to rewrite planning rules to make it easier to build intensive livestock farms despite concerns about water pollution, air quality and local opposition, the Guardian revealed earlier in April.

 

In the UK, agriculture is responsible for 89% of national emissions of the nitrogen-based gas used to produce fertilisers and released from livestock manure. Industrial intensive animal farming increases the environmental and health burdens associated with ammonia, CiWF says in a report published alongside the map.

 

Once in the air, ammonia reacts with other pollutants to form particulate matter – PM2.5, which is considered one of the most dangerous forms of air pollution. The Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP) estimated human-made PM2.5 exposure was responsible for between 28,861 and 29,000 premature deaths in the UK in 2010.

 

Modelling shows that reducing agricultural emissions could dramatically cut mortality rates.

 

Released into the environment, excess nitrogen from ammonia deposition acidifies soils and pollutes rivers. In Shropshire, campaigners recently blocked permission for a poultry megafarm by successfully arguing the council had failed to take into account all the environmental impacts of an industrial unit containing 230,000 chickens at any one time when it granted planning permission.

 

A rise in large intensive poultry units, known as IPUs, in the valleys of the Rivers Wye and Severn is a key cause of river pollution as chicken droppings contain more phosphates – which starve fish and river plants of oxygen – than any other animal manure.

 

The map published is an estimation of ammonia produced by industrial livestock units.

 

Calculations were derived from permitted stocking numbers and average ammonia production factors for different categories of livestock, such as broiler chickens, indoor eggs, and pigs.

 

CiWF and Sustain are calling for an end to the expansion of factory farming.

 

Anthony Field, head of Compassion in World Farming UK, said: "Factory farming sits at the heart of the UK's ammonia crisis.

 

"By cramming large numbers of animals into confined spaces and relying heavily on fertilisers, these intensive systems release far more ammonia than the environment or our bodies can cope with. The result is a cascade of harm – to the animals living in these conditions, to the people breathing the polluted air, and to the ecosystems absorbing the excess nitrogen."

 

- The Guardian