Ameliorative Strategies to Sustain Livestock Production during Heat Stress

Not AvailableIn the changing climate scenario, heat stress is of major concern among livestock owners as it affects drastically livestock production which otherwise contributes 40% of world agriculture GDP (gross domestic product). Hence there is an urgent need for reviewing the various strategies to counter the heat stress impact on livestock production. THI (temperature humidity index) may not be the ideal index to quantify heat stress impact on livestock as it does not take into account solar radiation and wind velocity. Hence, more appropriate agro-ecological zone specific indices like Dairy Heat Load Index (DHLI) which takes into account all cardinal weather parameters is the need of hour. Development of appropriate heat abatement strategies depends on the type of dairy operation practiced in a particular livestock farm. During heat stress, management strategies such as providing shade, sprinklers, fans, cold water, minimum handling, grazing during early morning and late evening hours might be very beneficial to improve livestock production. Considerable efforts are needed to modify the existing housing condition according to the changing climatic condition to improve the livestock production. Apart from management strategies, nutritional strategies also must be given equal importance which not only will help the animal to survive the stress but also it will ensure optimum energy for production processes. Nutritional interventions such as additional concentrate supplementation, re-formulation of diet that accounts for reduced DMI, fat, minerals, vitamins and antioxidants supplementation are very vital for ensuring optimum production in livestock during heat stress condition. Appropriate health service measures needs to be taken to counter the emergence of sudden disease outbreaks during heat stress condition. Geographic information system (GIS) has to be integrated with disease surveillance program to create the hazardous maps of sudden disease outbreaks and correlating them with climate and other information might be very useful for future predictions. In addition, predictive modeling system can also be used as an effective tool to forecast the probability of a disease outbreak. Advanced technological development need to be integrated with suitable breeding programs using marker assisted selection to develop agro-ecological zone specific thermo-tolerant breeds of livestock. The developed strategies should be user friendly and economically feasible if farmers have to adopt those strategies to improve livestock production in the changing climatic condition.Not Availabl