Managing heat stress in dairy animals

Abstract

Climate change has a major impact on animal production systems' sustainability. Heat stress occurs in hot, humid settings when there is an imbalance between the body's metabolic heat production and its dissipation to the environment. Increases in heart rate, rectal temperature and respiration rate are the primary responses of animals to hot weather. It has a direct impact on feed intake, which lowers growth rate, milk production, reproductive efficiency, and in severe situations, even death. Exotic and crossbred dairy breeds are often more prone to heat stress than native breeds, and higher producing animals are even more so because they produce more heat through metabolism. An animal's vulnerability to several diseases is increased when it experiences heat stress because it
suppresses the immunological and endocrine systems. Hence, sustainable dairy farming remains a vast challenge in these changing climatic conditions globally.