Dairy Cow Welfare, Heat Stress and Climate Change- Juniper Publishers
Journal of Dairy & Veterinary Sciences - Juniper Publishers Abstract There has been widespread concern in the media regarding the impact that livestock have on global warming, particularly with methane from ruminants noted as a potent greenhouse gas. Less public debate has occurred however, on the potentially negative impact that global warming will have, indeed is having, on livestock welfare. Here we will first briefly discuss the effect of livestock husbandry on climate change before moving to a more detailed discussion of the effect that a warmer climate is likely to have, again is currently having, on the physiology and welfare of cattle across the world. Finally, we will briefly discuss measures that can be taken to reduce the impact of temperature increase on dairy cattle. Introduction Recent research has estimated that while cattle provide just 18% of the world’s dietary calories and 37% of protein, they use a huge pr...