Effect of Heat Stress on Cattle: A Review

Abstract

Heat stress in livestock animals is one of the promising topics discussed especially with climate change. Even though it is complicated to accurately measure at which point the cattle may suffer from heat stress due to different external and internal factors, mitigation of heat stress is quite important because a cow can lead to hyperthermia if it couldn’t maintain the thermoneutrality of its body. A great number of researches were conducted to find out the factors that lead to heat stress and the effects of heat stress on the production, reproduction, respiratory rates, heart rate, and feeding behaviors of cattle. Mitigation strategies for heat stress were also revealed under different means by mitigating heat exchange pathways which lead to accumulate the heat within the body, and management strategies including nutritional management.  The present review was to elaborate on those findings to critically evaluate how dairy cattle are affected by heat stress in the livestock industry and the investigated mitigation strategies of heat stress to regulate the body heat of cattle.