Climate change and cattle production: Impact and adaptation

Abstract

Climate change has far-reaching consequences on several sectors of agriculture. Cattle production within animal agriculture is one of the most susceptible sectors for the devastating effects of climate change. Climate change associated heat stress negatively impacts cattle production both directly and indirectly.Heat stress reduces the feed intake which ultimately reduces the body weight, average daily gain and body condition scoring in cattle. Further, heat stress associated reduced feed intake also affects the milk production, meat production and reproduction in cattle. The high producing cattle are more vulnerable to heat stress than the low producing animals. Livestock exhibits a wide range of adaptive mechanisms to cope with environmental challenges. The classical adaptive mechanisms include morphological, behavioral, physiological, neuroendocrine, blood biochemical and cellular responses that act in coordination to promote the welfare and favour their survival in a specific environment. The detailed studies on these adaptive mechanisms have identified respiration rate, rectal temperature, Hb, PCV, cortisol, thyroid hormones to be reliable phenotypic markers and HSP70 as a confirmatory genotypic biomarker to assess the impact of heat stress in dairy cattle.