The Impact of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Husbandry on the Biophysical Characteristics of Soils in Neotropical Agroecosystems

Abstract

Abstract:The neotropical agroecosystems are important areas in the global scene in terms of livestock production. Therefore, a good conservation of their soils is crucial in order to both guarantee food safety and reduce the impact of land degradation processes. Conservation of neotropical soils used for farming activities could be obtained using veterinary medicine and adopting new grazing systems in the last decades. A wide bibliographical review was carried out which illustrates current issues in neotropical agroecosystems, the importance of their soil properties highlighting the role played by dung beetles within the edaphofauna, and the effects of the most common anti-parasitic practices as well as some natural alternatives. Finally, we present commonly adopted grazing systems and how they are affecting soil properties and animal welfare. The conversion of forest into agricultural and pasture land is altering the biochemical quality of soils. Furthermore, the use of ivermectin is dangerously reducing the total amount of dung beetles that are a key element in nutrient recycling processes. The implementation of new grazing systems (e.g., Voisin, Savory) is progressively fragmenting the habitat of many species. Nevertheless, there are also some benefits in this kind of practices and some natural alternatives to anthelmintics are being tested.

Decrease in faeces removal and soil bioturbation by dung beetles in genetically modified maize plantations in southern Brazil

“…They are detritivorous organisms and facilitate organic matter decomposition by microorganisms, essential for nutrient cycling (Yokoyama et al, 1991; Nervo et al, 2017; Yamada et al, 2007). When dung beetles are absent, faeces remain on the soil surface, allowing greater resource availability to fly larvae, which may increase the spread of diseases caused by those insects (Nichols et al, 2008; Braga et al, 2012; Pulido et al, 2018).…”

Grass-livestock interaction: a critical review of current research progress

“…number of keywords related to "Management, Livestock, Vegetation" has increased (Figures 4-6), covering multiple disciplines such as botany, soil science (Pulido et al, 2018), animal management (Reinermann et al, 2020), climate change (Uwizeye et al, 2020), social economy (Sharma et al, 2021), and policy science (Wei et al, 2021), which influence social stability, economic growth, and environmental protection (Herrero et al, 2013). Therefore, cross-disciplinary and cross-field cooperation is urgently needed to integrate expertise and research methods in different fields in order to solve scientific problems in the grass-livestock interaction field.…”

Estrés calórico y conteo de dípteros hematófagos en sistemas silvopastoriles de estratos múltiples

“…La respuesta más probable frente a la explosión poblacional de vectores de enfermedades, aunque poco sostenible y potencialmente peligrosa para el animal, para la salud humana y para el ambiente, es el uso de productos químicos tipo antihelmínticos y acaricidas, entre otros (Alonso-Díaz et al, 2014), de los cuales se ha demostrado que su mal uso, ha generado consecuencias como la resistencia a ecto y endoparásitos (Alegría-López et al, 2015) y alteraciones en la población de invertebrados benéficos del suelo (Alonso-Díaz et al, 2014;Pulido et al, 2018).…”