Effects of Environmental Stressors on Livestock

When temperatures rise beyond an animal's comfort zone, livestock don't simply get hot — they eat less, redirect energy away from milk and muscle production, and undergo cascading hormonal and metabolic shifts that reduce efficiency and compromise welfare. Researchers studying environmental stressors on livestock work to quantify these physiological responses in species like dairy cattle, map the genetic variation that makes some individuals more heat-tolerant than others, and model how ongoing climate change will alter production outcomes across different regions. A central open question is how much of an animal's resilience is heritable and therefore amenable to selective breeding, versus dependent on management strategies like shade, cooling systems, or adjusted feeding schedules. As global temperatures continue to climb and demand for animal-sourced food grows, understanding the mechanisms linking thermal stress to productivity has become one of the more urgent practical problems in agricultural biology.

Works

55,336

Total citations

436,098

Keywords

Heat StressLivestock ProductionDairy CattleClimate ChangePhysiological ResponsesMetabolic Adaptations