Buffalo Farming as a Tool for Sustainability

Dear Colleagues,

Ruminant livestock is not only important for producing nutrient-dense meat and milk for human diets but also for providing hides, fiber, manure, and animal power for farming and transportation in many countries, as well as contributing to biodiversity. To obtain this, they use grass and legume plants that would be inedible to humans or live on land unsuitable for cultivation. Nevertheless, ruminants produce methane as a by-product of digestive fermentation, which accounts for 5.8% of the total anthropogenic emissions, raising concerns about their production that require a long-term global strategy for sustainable ruminant production.

The domestic buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) plays a strategic role in the world for both the economy and our society. This species is represented by 203.9 million heads on the planet and produces 137 mil T of milk and 4.3 mil T of meat, steadily increasing over the last 10 years. Buffalo products are important for the human requirements of proteins of high nutritional value, which are requirements that are going to increase rapidly in the future with the growth of the human population.

The buffalo is a long-living ruminant with a high capacity to convert fiber into energy and adapt in difficult areas such as marshlands or in hot and humid climates where other ruminants cannot survive. Buffaloes are social and family animals in small villages in Southeast Asia, where they are mainly used in the rice fields as draught animals.

Thanks to its great adaptability, buffaloes can be bred both in intensive systems as well as in extensive systems, such as in South American countries, where there is a high availability of natural pastures. Buffaloes reared in intensive systems are handled according to the same or comparable management routines as cattle; however, these conditions can cause animals new stressors that can adversely affect their health, social behavior, and heat dissipation. For this reason, ensuring the buffalo's welfare in intensive systems is a pivotal goal. Smart farming techniques are being developed to increase the sustainability of intensive management.

Researchers in these fields are invited to submit original or review manuscripts that address the topics reported below:

• Environment and animal interactions.
• Adaptation and mitigation strategies.
• Climate change and its impacts on productivity and animal welfare.
• Feeding, nutrition, and sustainability.
• Feed and rumen fermentation.
• Sustainable farming systems in different environments.
• Strategies to reduce heat stress.
• Dairy and meat production systems.
• Draught animals in rural labor.
• Meat products and their quality, processing, and traceability.
• Milk and cheese quality, processing, and traceability.
• Precision farming

Dr. Antonio Borghese
Dr. Antonella Chiariotti
Dr. Carlo Boselli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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• sustainability
• water buffalo
• Bubalus bubalis
• meat
• milk
• food quality
• animal welfare
• precision farming
• climate change
• rumen
• adaptation strategies
• mitigation strategies