Urine odour

Laska M. and Hudson R. (1995). Ability of female Squirrel Monkeys to discriminate between conspecific urine odours. Ethology 99, 39-52. 

Those concerned with the reproduction of animals were amongst the very first to pay attention to the importance of odour. No wonder reports on the effect of urine odour on the timing of oestrus and blocking of pregnancy in laboratory mice were inducive. 

Trimethylamine, CjH N, (CH3J3N. Colourless liquid with a strong fishy odour, miscible with water, m.p. — I24 C, b.p. 3-5°C. It occurs naturally in plants, herring brine, bone oil and urine. It reacts with hydrogen peroxide to give trimethylamine oxide and with ethylene oxide to give choline its commercial importance stems chiefly from this latter reaction. 

Fig. 5.5(b) Single unit responses in neocortex of dog effect of N-P duct closure [= columns] on response to conspecific odours. Ou = own urine, Of = own faeces, Su = strange urine, Sf = strange faeces, and C. = dry food for dog (from Onoda et al., 1981). 

Ultra-sound emissions typically occur when male rodents are exposed to female odours or altricial neonates to maternal sources (Whitney, 1974 Conely and Bell, 1978). Without the VNO, sexually inexperienced male mice do not utter emissions at ultra-high frequencies (UHF), whereas those with prior experience vocalise after VN-x, as discussed above (Chap. 5). Female mouse urine contains a unique UHF-eliciting component which is non-volatile but ephemeral (Sipos et al., 1995). The signal is degraded by oxidation and disappears within 15 to 18 hours of deposition. Direct contact with freshly voided urine must occur before males will vocalise (sexually experienced or inexperienced). At least one of the olfactory systems is needed for UHF to be elicited by fresh urine complete deafferentation abolishes the response (Sipos et al., 1993). Exposure to females permits UHF to be elicited by other than chemical cues (Labov and Wysocki, 1989). Nocturnal or cryptic species conceivably use ultrasound to advertise male presence whether this is to deter other males or assist with female location is unclear. 

Purvis K. and Haynes N. (1978). Odours of female rat urine on plasma testosterone in male rats. J Reprod Fertil 53, 63-65. 

Joulain, D. and Laurent, R. (1989). The catty odour in blackcurrant extracts versus the blackcurrant odour in the cat s urine In (S.C. Bhattacharyya, N. Sen and K.L. Sethi (Eds.), 11th International Congress of Essential Oils, Fragrances, and Flavours, Oxford IBH Publishing. New Delhi, India, pp. 89. 

Fig. 6.1 Different strains of mice detect different concentrations of urinary odours of conspecifics with BALB/c>129/Sl>C57BL/6. Presented are the mean durations ( SEM) that mice investigated water and three sequential 2-min presentations of the same concentration of urine from one of the other strains at (A) 10 2, (B) 10 3 and (C) 10-4 concentrations. Immediatelyafter the presentation of Urine A, mice were exposed to a novel urine B (the other foreign strain) at the same concentration.(Reprinted from Neuroscience, 118, Lee, Emsley, Brown, and Hagg, T. Marked differences in olfactory sensitivity and apparent speed of forebrain neuroblast migration in three inbred strains of mice. 263-270, Copyright (2006), with permission from Elsevier)...

Podebrad, F., Heil, M., Reichert, S., Mosandl, A., Sewell, A.C. and Bohles, H. (1999) 4,5-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-2[5H]-furanone (sotolone) - The odour of maple syrup urine disease. J. Inher. Metabol. Dis.22, 107-114. 

Mueller-Schwarze, D. (1979) Flehmen in the context of mammalian urine communication.- In F.J. Ritter (Ed.), Chemical ecology Odour communication in animals, Elsevier/North Holland Biomedical Press, Amsterdam, pp. 85-96. 

The remaining liquid flows continuously to a pit outside the house and is pumped in a silo. The fertilizer value is low. Daily removal of faeces and urine promotes as well a better house climate as a lower odour emission in comparison with piggeries with underslat slurry storage. Installing this filtersystem in partly slatted floor houses straw can be used to improve animal comfort, and to reduce heating costs. 

It can be concluded that separation and removal of urine and faeces from piggery result in a reduced formation of odour components (5). This might result in a decrease of the precieved odour as compared with a housing system with underslat slurry storage. 

Reduction of the emission of odours by treatment of the slurry is a direct way. On one hand this can partly be done by separate storage of the faeces and the urine. On the other hand by aerobic or anaerobic treatment. 

Kroodsma (6) studied the use of a filter to separate the urine and the faeces. The main target is to transport the mixture of faeces and some straw to arable farmers and spread the urine on own farmland. But a side effect of direct separation is a reduction of the emission of odours. This separation system is relative expensive, especially in modem pighouses with transverse channels. For a 500-pig unit the extra investment is at least Dfl. 70,- per pig place. The total annual costs are Dfl. 5,- per pig place. In a pighouse with channels in length this system is cheaper and this difference increases when the house is longer. 

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