Response of Domestic Animals to Climate Challenges

Abstract

The livestock sector is socially, culturally and politically very significant. It accounts for 40% of the world's agriculture Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It employs 1.3 billion people, and creates livelihoods for one billion of the world's population living in poverty. Climate change is seen as a major threat to the survival of many species, ecosystems and the financial sustainability of livestock production systems in many parts of the world. The potential problems are even greater in developing countries. Economic studies suggest severe losses if current management systems are not modified to reflect the shift in climate. In short, farmers/ managers need to adapt to the changes. There has been considerable interest in gaining an understanding how domestic livestock respond to climatic stressors. Studies have for the most part been undertaken in developed countries. These studies have provided a wealth of knowledge on differences between genotypes, the impact of climatic stress on production, reproduction and health. However little is known about adaptation of animals to rapid changes in climatic

Metabolic and hormonal acclimation to heat stress in domesticated ruminants

“…It is assumed that high ambient temperatures directly and indirectly affect the health status of farm animals (Gaughan et al, 2009a). Direct influences include temperature-related Heat stress in ruminants 1173 illness and death.…”

“…In ruminants, the STHA is characterized by responses initiated to compensate for the increased heat stress before permanent acclimation can be obtained. Increased heat dissipation (primarily through evaporative heat loss), reduced feed intake and milk yield and increased water intake are examples of the STHA response (Gaughan et al, 2009a).…”

“…In ruminants, the STHA is characterized by responses initiated to compensate for the increased heat stress before permanent acclimation can be obtained. Increased heat dissipation (primarily through evaporative heat loss), reduced feed intake and milk yield and increased water intake are examples of the STHA response (Gaughan et al, 2009a).When the initial acclimation phase is complete and the heat-acclimated phenotype is expressed, LTHA occurs (Horowitz, 2001 and. LTHA is characterized by a reprogrammed gene expression and cellular response resulting in enhanced efficiency of signalling pathways and metabolic processes (Horowitz, 2002), and this, in large part, may be mediated by heat shock proteins (Hsp; described later; Maloyan et al, 1999).…”

“…This is mainly due to species differences in the ability to reduce metabolic and endogenous heat production and increase heat dissipation. For instance, animals adapted to hot environments have lower metabolic and water turnover rates, and a higher capacity to dissipate heat via panting and sweating (Gaughan et al, 2009a). Among species, sheep and goats are considered less sensitive to heat stress than cattle (Silanikove, 2000a and2000b; Kalifa et al, 2005).…”

Animal health aspects of adaptation to climate change: beating the heat and parasites in a warming Europe

“…The direct effects of the predicted changes in climatic conditions, weather, frequency of extreme events and altered thermal environments will potentially have an impact on animal production efficiency and through the imposition of stress, resulting in consequences ranging from increased mortality to stress-induced pathologies, altered disease resistance and poor welfare (Gaughan et al, 2009). Livestock will also be affected indirectly through changing exposure to important livestock diseases.…”