Reviews on Impacts of Climate Change on Livestock Health and Production

Abstract

Background: Climate change and extreme weather events affect plants and animals directly or indirectly. The direct impact of anthropogenic climate change has been documented extensively over the past years throughout the world. National average temperature has increased by 1 °C since the 1960s. Most of the livestock owners in the country perceived there is a climate change that is being affecting animal production and health. Results :The major impact of climate change on livestock production include: feed shortage, shortage of water, losses of livestock genetic resources, reduced productivity, and decreased mature weight or longer time to reach mature weight. Again, which may cause loss of body condition, reduced milk production and poor reproductive performance in mature animals. Furthermore, the spatial distribution and availability of pasture and water are highly dependent on the pattern and availability of rainfall. Thus, shortage of feed and water contribute to reduced productivity and reproductive performance of livestock. Higher temperatures resulting from climate change may increase the rate of development of certain pathogens or parasites that have one or more life cycle stages outside their animal host. Conclusions: Generally, climate change will affects livestock health through several pathways, which are effects on pathogens, effects on hosts, effects on vectors, such as changes in rainfall and temperature regimes can affect both the distribution and the abundance of disease vectors, and effects on epidemiology such; as altered transmission rates between hosts. Climate change will have far-reaching consequences on production and health of animals especially, in vulnerable parts of the world where it is vital for population nutrition and livelihood. This review is conducted to explore the likely impacts of climate change on livestock health and productivity.