Heat Stress and Goat Welfare: Adaptation and Production Considerations

Abstract

This review attempted to collate and synthesize information on goat welfare and production constraints during heat stress exposure. Among the farm animals, goats arguably are considered the best-suited animals to survive in tropical climates. Heat stress was found to negatively influence growth, milk and meat production and compromised the immune response, thereby significantly reducing goats’ welfare under extensive conditions and transportation. Although considered extremely adapted to tropical climates, their production can be compromised to cope with heat stress. Therefore, information on goat adaptation and production performance during heat exposure could help assess their welfare. Such information would be valuable as the farming communities are often struggling in their efforts to assess animal welfare, especially in tropical regions. Broadly three aspects must be considered to ensure appropriate welfare in goats, and these include (i) housing and environment; (ii) breeding and genetics and (iii) handling and transport. Apart from these, there are a few other negative welfare factors in goat rearing, which differ across the production system being followed. Such negative practices are predominant in extensive systems and include nutritional stress, limited supply of good quality water, climatic extremes, parasitic infestation and lameness, culminating in low production, reproduction and high mortality rates. Broadly two types of methodologies are available to assess welfare in goats in these systems: (i) animal-based measures include behavioral measurements, health and production records and disease symptoms; (ii) resources based and management-based measures include stocking density, manpower, housing conditions and health plans. Goat welfare could be assessed based on several indicators covering behavioral, physical, physiological and productive responses. The important indicators of goat welfare include agonistic behavior, vocalization, skin temperature, body condition score (BCS), hair coat conditions, rectal temperature, respiration rate, heart rate, sweating, reduced growth, reduced milk production and reduced reproductive efficiency. There are also different approaches available by which the welfare of goats could be assessed, such as naturalistic, functional and subjective approaches. Thus, assessing welfare in goats at every production stage is a prerequisite for ensuring appropriate production in this all-important species to guarantee optimum returns to the marginal and subsistence farmers.

Changes in the goat’s milk composition due to heat stress at the farm of the Ukrainian steppe zone

“…Накопичені результати широко представлені у змістовних оглядах Fonseca et al (2016), Sejian et al (2019bSejian et al ( , 2021.…”

Sheep and goat welfare in Croatia: Assessing veterinary student attitudes

“…Nevertheless, many of the recently demonstrated welfare issues in small ruminants, which are not associated with zootechnical procedures (Munoz et al, 2019;Rioja-Lang et al, 2020;Sejian et al, 2021) could also refer to the sheep and goats in Croatia.…”

Загальносвітові Тенденції Розвитку Галузі Козівництва Та Основні Фактори Формування Якості Козячого Молока

“…Надзвичайно холодна погода може зменшити продукування молока [46]. Також кози сприйнятливі до теплового стресу, незважаючи на термостійкі характеристики [47].…”