Water Buffalo Welfare, Strategies to Improve Health, Behavior, Productivity, and Food Quality and Safety

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue, entitled "Water Buffalo Welfare, Strategies to Improve Health, Behavior, Productivity, and Food Quality and Safety", aims to gather and publish leading research papers on advances in the study of the water buffalo, especially in such crucial areas as infectious diseases, biotechnological applications, strategies to improve health and productivity, molecular cytogenetics, reproductive biotechnologies, animal sustainability, human–animal relationships, the bases of sustainable models, behavior and animal welfare, feeding, nutrition, and sustainability, feeding, and ruminal biochemistry, the effects of heat stress, food quality, and safety, among other topics.

According to the FAO, over the past 50 years, the number of farmed water buffaloes (Bubalus bubalis) has increased to more than that of cattle. The water buffalo is now classified as the sixth-most abundant productive species in the world, behind only stocks of poultry, bovine cattle (genus Bos), swine, sheep, and goats. In 2018, the FAO reported a worldwide population of 206 million water buffaloes, distributed in 48 countries, and highlighted a rate of population growth for this species of 11% from 2008 to 2018: a figure 6% higher than Bos cattle in the same period. The water buffalo has thus opened an opportunity to exploit a species with enormous potential for development in tropical areas, especially in zones with high humidity, since it is a rustic species that can adapt to complex habitats. Reports cite significant productive indices in intensive production systems where the water buffalo’s meat, milk, and mozzarella cheese are highly appreciated. Moreover, this species has been introduced into new environments under both intensive and extensive conditions, and breeding operations are currently spreading from Asia and Europe to other nations, including the Latin American region.

The study of the water buffalo presents a true challenge to both scientists and producers; while significant advances have been made in scientific research, firmly establishing this species in an industry that drives the economy of numerous countries, knowledge in such areas as pathologies, physiology, ethology, genetics, reproduction, zootechnics, nutrition, food quality, and safety is still lacking. Today, the water buffalo is the basis of the only value chain in agroalimentary systems with notable growth offering high returns on investment.

The objective of this Special Issue is to publish and disseminate scientific advances and technological innovations that can improve the reproductive and nutritional efficiency of this livestock species, and thus raise the productivity of Bubalus bubalis ranches, improve the animals’ state of health, optimize their level of welfare through ethology, and produce nutritious foods while, at the same time, protecting the environment and ensuring that all measures implemented into food are safe and innocuous.

I invite researchers in these fields to submit original or review manuscripts that address one or more of these diverse topics. These suggestions include, but are not limited to:

• Biotechnological applications in water buffalo research;
• Interactions with the environment;
• Climate change and productivity;
• Feeding, nutrition, and sustainability;
• Infectious and non-infectious diseases;
• Strategies to improve health;
• Reproductive biotechnologies;
• Behavior and animal welfare;
• Food quality and safety;
• Molecular tools and infectious disease epidemiology;
• Genetic diversity, heterozygosity, and genetic structure;
• Molecular cytogenetics, risk analysis, and genomic epidemiology;
• Animal sustainability on buffalo ranches;
• The environmental impacts of water buffalo production on different systems;
• The human–animal relationship;
• Sustainable systems in humid tropical zones;
• Handling and physiological aspects;
• Climate change and its varied impacts on productivity;
• Infrared thermography as a tool for assessing buffalo health and welfare;
• Acclimatization, adaptation to high temperatures, and the thermal comfort index;
• Reproductive management;
• Assisted reproductive biotechnologies;
• Pregnancy, calving, lactation, weaning, confinement, pasturing, transport, lairage, and slaughter;
• Advances in embryo production, cryopreservation, and reproductive ultrasonography;
• Cloning and transgenesis;
• Behavior and strategies to reduce heat stress;
• Maternal and neonatal behavior;
• Stereotypes and redirected behaviors;
• Quality of death and the neurobiology of sensitization;
• Welfare and pain at slaughter;
• Deep unconsciousness during death, hyperalgesia, and events at slaughter;
• Dairy and meat production;
• Feed resources and rumen fermentation;
• Feeding and ruminal biochemistry;
• The use of draught animals in rural labor;
• Transport and handling;
• Meat, milk, and mozzarella cheese quality;
• Food safety, shelf-life, and packaging;
• Tracing systems and processed milk and meat products;
• Authenticity and molecular techniques in meat, milk, and mozzarella cheese;
• Nutritional and sensory analysis;
• Effects of packaging type and aging on meat quality;
• Impact of freezing on the microbiological quality of mozzarella cheese.

Dr. Daniel Mota-Rojas
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• water buffalo
• Bubalus bubalis
• meat quality
• welfare
• behavior
• health
• food quality
• food safety
• productivity