Global environmental costs of China's thirst for milk

Bai, Zhaohai; Lee, Michael R. F.; Ma, Lin; Ledgard, Stewart; Oenema, O.; Velthof, G.L.; Ma, Wenqi; Guo, Mengchu; Zhao, Zhihui; Sha, Wei E. I.; Li, Shengli; Liu, Xia; Havlík, Petr; Luo, Jiafa; Hu, Chunsheng; Zhang, Fusuo

doi:10.1111/gcb.14047

Cited by 69 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Milk and dairy products are consumed around the world by billions of people, and global milk demand is still increasing (Bai et al, 2018). To further increase production in an ecologically and economically responsible manner, investing in optimal udder health and robust cattle is necessary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infection dynamics across the dry period using Dairy Herd Improvement somatic cell count data and its effect on cow performance in the subsequent lactation

Lipkens

Piepers

Verbeke³

et al. 2019

Journal of Dairy Science

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In this study, we studied infection dynamics across the dry period using test-day somatic cell count (SCC) data from 739 Holstein cows from 33 randomly selected commercial dairy herds in Flanders, all of which applied blanket dry-cow therapy at dry-off. First, we determined infection dynamics, combining the last testday SCC before dry-off and the first test-day SCC after calving. Next, we determined the effect of dry period infection dynamics, adjusting for the level of the second test-day SCC after calving, on the evolution of testday SCC and milk yield (MY) and on clinical mastitis and culling hazard in the subsequent lactation. Using an SCC threshold of 200,000 cells/mL, 12.6% of the cows considered healthy before dry-off acquired a new intramammary infection (IMI) across the dry period, whereas 66.9% of the cows considered infected before dry-off cured from IMI. Infection dynamics across the dry period significantly affect a cow's SCC, clinical mastitis risk, and culling hazard in the subsequent lactation. Cows with a new IMI, a cured IMI, or a chronic IMI across the dry period had higher test-day SCC than healthy cows, and their test-day SCC evolved differently over time. This was not the case for test-day milk yield, for which no association with infection dynamics was detected. Furthermore, cows with a second test-day SCC <200,000 cells/mL had a lower test-day SCC in the remainder of the lactation than cows with a second test-day SCC ≥200,000 cells/mL, but this association was modified by infection dynamics across the dry period. The lowest test-day SCC in the remainder of the lactation was observed for cows that remained healthy across the dry period combined with a low (<200,000 cells/mL) second test-day SCC. Cows that cured from an IMI present at dry-off and cows with a chronic IMI across the dry period were more likely to develop clinical mastitis (hazard ratio = 2.22 and 2.89; 95% confidence interval = 1.45-3.43 and 1.60-5.20, respectively), and chronic IMI cows were more likely to be culled (hazard ratio = 3.68; 95% confidence interval = 1.64-8.20) in the subsequent lactation compared with healthy cows. This was not true for cows that became infected across the dry period. This study underlines the importance of good udder health management during lactation to prevent IMI at dry-off rather than curing infected cows during the dry period to ensure optimal udder health in the subsequent lactation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infection dynamics across the dry period using Dairy Herd Improvement somatic cell count data and its effect on cow performance in the subsequent lactation

Lipkens

Piepers

Verbeke³

et al. 2019

Journal of Dairy Science

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“…Changes in food consumption alter food production and supply through effects on demand , Lamb et al 2016. Economic growth generally results in a transition towards a diet higher in animal protein (Shindo et al 2006, Tilman and Clark 2014, Lassaletta et al 2014b, Bai et al 2018. A preference for livestock products increases Nr loss to the environment because of the low NUE of livestock production (Smil 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing nitrogen footprints of consumer-level food loss and protein overconsumption in Japan, considering gender and age differences

Hayashi

Oita

Lassaletta

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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The agro-food system perturbs the nitrogen (N) cycle through its N loads to the environment. The present study focused on food-related consumer-level N loads in Japan from 1961-2015, with a particular focus on food loss and protein overconsumption. Gender and age differences were also analyzed. Consumer-level food loss was negligible until the 1970s, when it began to slowly increase, accounting for an average of 13.2% of the annual net supply during 2011-2015. Japanese people have consumed more protein than the World Health Organization's recommended intake since 1961. Protein overconsumption increased until the mid-1990s, when it began to decrease, but it still accounted for an average of 32.3% of total annual protein consumption during 2011-2015. The national mean of food N footprints (total release of reactive N into the environment related to individual food consumption) in the same period was 18.3 kg N capita -1 yr -1 , of which food loss accounted for 4% and protein overconsumption for 37%. The food N footprint of each sex/age class varied from 16.0-21.6 kg N capita -1 yr -1 , males had a larger footprint in each age class. Seven scenarios to reduce the N footprints were evaluated; a scenario that included halving protein overconsumption, livestock meat consumption, and food loss was estimated to reduce the food N footprint by 31%. Thus, there is room for reducing consumer-induced N loads to the environment. Campaigns aimed at boosting healthy and environmentally friendly diets should consider the diverse consumption patterns of different sex and age classes.

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“…yr −1 during 1961(FAOSTAT, 2018. Increased meat and dairy product consumption worldwide was a major driver behind the documented increase in cattle herds globally (FAOSTAT, 2018), and thus a major cause in the observed atmospheric increase of N 2 O and CH 4 over the past several decades (Bai et al, 2018;Bouwman et al, 2013;Dangal et al, 2017;Tubiello, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increased nitrogen enrichment and shifted patterns in the world's grassland: 1860–2016

Tian

Pan

et al. 2019

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. Production and application to soils of manure excreta from livestock farming significantly perturb the global nutrient balance and result in significant greenhouse gas emissions that warm the earth's climate. Despite much attention paid to synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer and manure N applications to croplands, spatially explicit, continuous time-series datasets of manure and fertilizer N inputs on pastures and rangelands are lacking. We developed three global gridded datasets at a resolution of 0.5∘ × 0.5∘ for the period 1860–2016 (i.e., annual manure N deposition (by grazing animals) rate, synthetic N fertilizer and N manure application rates), by combining annual and 5 arcmin spatial data on pastures and rangelands with country-level statistics on livestock manure, mineral and chemical fertilizers, and land use information for cropland and permanent meadows and pastures. Based on the new data products, we estimated that total N inputs, the sum of manure N deposition, manure N application and fertilizer N application to pastures and rangelands, increased globally from 15 to 101 Tg N yr−1 during 1860–2016. In particular during the period 2000–2016, livestock manure N deposition accounted for 83 % of the total N inputs, whereas manure and fertilizer N application accounted 9 % and 8 %, respectively. At the regional scale, hotspots of manure N deposition remained largely similar during the period 1860–2016 (i.e., southern Asia, Africa and South America); however, hotspots of manure and fertilizer N application shifted from Europe to southern Asia in the early 21st century. The new three global datasets contribute to the filling of the previous data gaps of global and regional N inputs in pastures and rangelands, improving the abilities of ecosystem and earth system models to investigate the global impacts of N enrichment due to agriculture, in terms of associated greenhouse gas emissions and environmental sustainability issues. Datasets are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.892940.

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Global environmental costs of China's thirst for milk

Cited by 69 publications

References 46 publications

Infection dynamics across the dry period using Dairy Herd Improvement somatic cell count data and its effect on cow performance in the subsequent lactation

Infection dynamics across the dry period using Dairy Herd Improvement somatic cell count data and its effect on cow performance in the subsequent lactation

Reducing nitrogen footprints of consumer-level food loss and protein overconsumption in Japan, considering gender and age differences

Increased nitrogen enrichment and shifted patterns in the world's grassland: 1860–2016

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