Resilience of Small Ruminants to Climate Change and Increased Environmental Temperature: A Review

Abstract

Climate change is a major global threat to the sustainability of livestock systems. Climatic factors such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, direct and indirect solar radiation and wind speed influence feed and water availability, fodder quality and disease occurrence, with production being most efficient in optimal environmental conditions. Among these climatic variables, ambient temperature fluctuations have the most impact on livestock production and animal welfare. Continuous exposure of the animals to heat stress compromises growth, milk and meat production and reproduction. The capacity of an animal to mitigate effects of increased environmental temperature, without progressing into stress response, differs within and between species. Comparatively, small ruminants are better adapted to hot environments than large ruminants and have better ability to survive, produce and reproduce in harsh climatic regions. Nevertheless, the physiological and behavioral changes in response to hot environments affect small ruminant production. It has been found that tropical breeds are more adaptive to hot climates than high-producing temperate breeds. The growing body of knowledge on the negative impact of heat stress on small ruminant production and welfare will assist in the development of suitable strategies to mitigate heat stress. Selection of thermotolerant breeds, through identification of genetic traits for adaption to extreme environmental conditions (high temperature, feed scarcity, water scarcity), is a viable strategy to combat climate change and minimize the impact on small ruminant production and welfare. This review highlights such adaption within and among different breeds of small ruminants challenged by heat stress.

Effects of Environmental Factors Growth Traits of Akkaraman Sheep in Çankırı Province

“…They are known for their high adaptive capacity under various environmental conditions such as meagre diet and arid landscapes. Compared to large ruminants, sheep and goats require less input of feed, water and labour, which provides the species to be spread out around various environments (Joy et al, 2020). Among those indigenous breeds have critical role in sustainable production and food security for various reasons such as genetic variability and high adaptation (Bingol, 2016).…”

Non-Invasive Sheep Biometrics Obtained by Computer Vision Algorithms and Machine Learning Modeling Using Integrated Visible/Infrared Thermal Cameras

“…Heat stress events for animals are not only restricted to animal transport through sea or land, but it can also happen in farms due to increased ambient temperatures related to climate change, which can directly impact the health and welfare of animals [4][5][6][7]. There have been several types of research investigating the genetic resilience and adaptation of animals to heat stress [8][9][10][11] and…”

Milk Production and Energetic Metabolism of Heat-Stressed Dairy Goats Supplemented with Propylene Glycol

“…As pointed out by Joy et al [ 15 ], an increment in cortisol levels in response to HS causes protein mobilization and catabolism to provide glucogenic AA for gluconeogenesis. Therefore, our hypothesis was that feeding propylene glycol would increase blood glucose and reduce the dependance on AA as energy source.…”