IMPACT OF CHANGING ENVIRONMENT ON BODY PHYSIOLOGY, REPRODUCTION, AND PRODUCTION
The environment exerts a substantial influence on the physiology, reproductive potential, and production performance of animals across various species. The rising demand for livestock products presents market prospects and financial gains for small-scale, marginal, and landless farmers.
However, the global livestock production sector encounters mounting challenges due to adverse environmental consequences, primarily attributed to the prevalence of erratic climatic patterns (Soumya et al. 2022). Sudden spikes in temperature or prolonged periods of high temperatures lead to reduced feed intake, altered metabolic processes, decreased reproductive efficiency, and indirectly through water scarcity affect hydration, feed quality, digestion, and overall health of animals. Likewise, acute cold stress reduces glucose availability for normal development and growth in multiple species and is accompanied by enhanced thermogenesis at the expense of tissue accretion and growth. Moreover, losses in muscle mass, growth rate, and feed efficiency occur due to the partitioning of energy toward shivering and non-shivering thermogenesis, increased maintenance costs, heat production, altered lipid metabolism, and other digestive inefficiency (Young 1981; Steffen 1988). Predictably, many of the metabolic and physiological effects of heat and cold stress are biologically contrasting; however, the ultimate consequence of heat and cold stress is similar as both are homeorhetically orchestrated to prioritise survival at the cost of production (Figure 24.4).24.6
Source:
Rana Tanmoy (ed.). Principles of Veterinary Animal Physiology. CRC Press,2026. — 290 p.. 2026
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