Dwaine Bundy can smell the strong scent of success.

He has used his expert nose to become a leader in livestock air quality for 11 years.

Known mostly for smelling air samples to determine the potency of their odors, his work is actually more complicated than it may appear.

Bundy, professor of agricultural biosystems engineering, is an ISU alumnus who began to teach and do research at Iowa State after graduating.

“Research is my real passion,” Bundy said. “My main focus is to try to find new treatment methods to reduce odors in and around swine lagoons, buildings and manure storages.”

Steve Hoff, associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering, said Bundy is a leader in livestock odors.

“He has always been the type of researcher who looks at practical methods to help the producer,” Hoff said.

For the past 11 years, Hoff and Bundy have worked together on many projects, such as developing research methods to cost-effectively reduce odors and studying odor dispersion from Iowa swine facilities.

This type of research is greatly needed in Iowa because of the importance of the swine and livestock industries, Hoff said.

Bundy has developed a sophisticated way to measure odors in hog facilities.

“Dwaine wanted to develop and refine some techniques used in Europe to measure odors,” Hoff said.

Hoff said Iowa State’s research in this field began in 1991 in response to industry needs, but European researchers have been doing similar work for about 20 years.

Hoff said he and Bundy developed an odor-sampling tool called an olfactometer, which other universities have started to use.

“We use an olfactory sensory method to evaluate an air sample, not an actual liquid sample that we just smell,” Bundy said.

First, his research group collects air samples from the designated area in a 10-liter bag using a vacuum chamber and pump, Bundy said.

Then they use an olfactometer to dilute the samples and provide a sampling port to sniff them.

“Many people may wonder why we don’t use a scientific machine to test the air for odor. The truth is, the human nose is the absolute best way to detect livestock odors at low concentrations when compared to all other machines we have today,” he said.

Several communities have complained about the unpleasant odors of hog confinements in past years, sparking his interest in the field.

“As livestock facilities became more of an issue to the public, I found a greater need for work and research in this area,” he said.

Hoff said Bundy’s research has given people a quantitative procedure for measuring livestock odors that allow them to judge the effectiveness of odor-reducing methods.

The physical gap between urban people and rural people who produce livestock is growing smaller, Hoff said.

“The bottom line is that we must come up with practical, cost-effective ways to reduce livestock odors so they aren’t a nuisance to people who aren’t used to them,” he said.

Hoff said he and Bundy are joined by several other research groups in the United States who are doing similar research with similar techniques.

Bundy’s innovative work is known around the country. He and his research team are currently in charge of evaluating swine lagoon odors in Colorado.

Bundy is looking forward to his faculty improvement leave that will begin this summer and continue through the fall.

“I’ll be studying and testing the environmental health effects of living in communities with livestock production systems,” he said.