Abstract
One of the projected effects of climate change is a reduction in rainfall in certain regions of the world. Hence, the agricultural and livestock sectors will have to cope with increasing incidences of water shortage while still maintaining productivity levels to feed an ever increasing global population. This short communication reports on the effect of a 2-week water stress on Pelibuey sheep in Cuba. Three treatments were compared, viz. supply of water ad libitum, water supplied once every 3 or 6 days. Following exposure to the water stress, the results showed no changes in sheep body weight or rectal temperature. However, respiration frequency was affected with water stress causing a reduction from 23.3 to 13.3 respirations per min in control and water-deprived animals, respectively. Furthermore, there was evidence for hemoconcentration in response to water stress (levels of hemoglobin increased from 9.2 to 13.1 g L-1 and hematocrits from 27.6 to 39.3% in the control group and animals restricted to water once every 6 days. The imposed water stress was also evident in the reduction of lymphocytes (from ±63 to 43%), and in increase of neutrophils (from approximately 38 to 54%) and leukocytes (from 3133 to 4933 per mm3). The results indicated a decline in the levels of antioxidants, i.e., SOD from approximately 13 to 10 U mg-1 protein and CAT activity from 23 to 9 U mg-1 protein. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the response of Pelibuey sheep to short-term water shortage stress under Cuban environmental conditions.
Highlights
Livestock farming contributes towards global food production to feed an ever increasing population
The results showed that there was no discernible change in the body weight of animals in response to water restriction (Fig. 1a)
The results from the present study showed that short-term restriction in water supply did not affect the weight of animals
Summary
Livestock farming contributes towards global food production to feed an ever increasing population. There will have to be a concomitant rise in food production to support this growing population Both agricultural and livestock production are reliant on finite climate-sensitive natural resources, in the case of livestock farming, it is widely accepted that the bulk of this proposed increase in production will have to be addressed by sustainably producing more outputs without accessing additional land and water. In the context of the former, the availability and quality of feed, forage and water will be influenced by increasing temperatures, the predicted rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels and alterations in rainfall patterns while animal reproduction and health (including disease transmission) will be affected by similar factors (Rojas-Downing et al 2017; Escarcha et al 2018). It is imperative that appropriate management strategies are implemented to ensure efficient food production while preserving the environment and natural resources (Wright et al 2012)
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