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Animals
Special Issues
Impact and Management of Thermal Stressors on Cattle
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Impact and Management of Thermal Stressors on Cattle

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Cattle".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 9426

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Angela Lees

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW 2350, Australia
Interests: cattle; sheep; body temperature regulation; animal production; animal physiology; climate change; heat load indices; heat stress; animal welfare
Dr. Gene Wijffels

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CSIRO Agriculture and Food, St Lucia, QLD 4067, Australia
Interests: inflammation and cytokines; endocrinology; stress in animals; metabolomics; proteomics and neuropeptidomics
Dr. John B. Gaughan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Queensland, Gatton, Qld 4343, Australia
Interests: environmental science; climate change impacts on livestock and animal science

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impact of thermal stressors on cattle has been extensively investigated for some time, and although our knowledge and understanding continues to be developed, managing cattle to reduce the impact of thermal stressors remains challenging. These challenges will continue to persist in future years, particularly when considered in conjunction with climate change. In future years, the greatest challenges for cattle and other species housed in outdoor environments will be managing the increased ambient conditions, extreme weather events, and variation in seasonal weather patterns. Furthermore, if the forecasted climate change predictions are accurate, global warming is likely to have a significant impact on the stability and sustainability of intensive livestock production enterprises worldwide. Combined, these emphasize the importance of further studies investigating the impact of thermal stressors in cattle. As such, we invite colleagues to submit manuscripts that explore aspects of thermal challenges on cattle, that may or may not be considered in conjunction with alleviation strategies. We invite original research and review articles that investigate the impact of acute and chronic thermal challenges on animal growth and productivity, homeostatic mechanisms, homeorhetic trajectories, body temperature regulation, metabolic functions, reproduction, health, immunity, and welfare. Submissions investigating the genetics of thermotolerance and genetic selection will also be considered.

Dr. Angela Lees
Dr. Gene Wijffels
Dr. John B. Gaughan
Guest Editors

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.

Keywords

  • hyperthermia
  • hypothermia
  • heat stress
  • cold stress
  • climate change
  • heat load
  • mitigation
  • thermotolerance

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1875 KiB  
Article
Identification of Reference Genes for Expression Studies in the Whole-Blood from Three Cattle Breeds under Two States of Livestock Weather Safety
by Kelly J. Lozano-Villegas, Roy Rodríguez-Hernández, María P. Herrera-Sánchez, Heinner F. Uribe-García, Juan S. Naranjo-Gómez, Rafael J. Otero-Arroyo and Iang S. Rondón-Barragán
Animals 2021, 11(11), 3073; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11113073 - 28 Oct 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2717
Abstract
Real-time PCR is widely used to study the relative abundance of mRNA due to its specificity, sensitivity, and repeatability quantification. However, relative quantification requires a reference gene, which should be stable in its expression, showing lower variation by experimental conditions or tissues. The [...] Read more.
Real-time PCR is widely used to study the relative abundance of mRNA due to its specificity, sensitivity, and repeatability quantification. However, relative quantification requires a reference gene, which should be stable in its expression, showing lower variation by experimental conditions or tissues. The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of the expression of five commonly used reference genes (actb, ywhaz, b2m, sdha, and 18s rRNA) at different physiological stages (alert and emergency) in three different cattle breeds. In this study, five genes (actb, ywhaz, b2m, sdha, and 18s rRNA) were selected as candidate reference genes for expression studies in the whole blood from three cattle breeds (Romosinuano, Gyr, and Brahman) under heat stress conditions. The transcription stability of the candidate reference genes was evaluated using geNorm and NormFinder. The results showed that actb, 18SrRNA, and b2m expression were the most stable reference genes for whole blood of Gyr and Brahman breeds under two states of livestock weather safety (alert and emergency). Meanwhile, actb, b2m, and ywhaz were the most stable reference genes for the Romosinuano breed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact and Management of Thermal Stressors on Cattle)
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11 pages, 683 KiB  
Article
Dairy Heifer Motivation for Access to a Shaded Area
by Clarissa Silva Cardoso, Marina A. G. von Keyserlingk, Luiz Carlos Pinheiro Machado Filho and Maria José Hötzel
Animals 2021, 11(9), 2507; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11092507 - 26 Aug 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2833
Abstract
We used an operant conditioning paradigm to test the motivation of non-pregnant dairy heifers to access shade during the summer and autumn months (January to June) in southern Brazil. Dairy heifers (n = 18) were trained to push a weighted gate to [...] Read more.
We used an operant conditioning paradigm to test the motivation of non-pregnant dairy heifers to access shade during the summer and autumn months (January to June) in southern Brazil. Dairy heifers (n = 18) were trained to push a weighted gate to access either an experimental area containing both a shaded (simple tree shade and shade cloth) and unshaded area (WITH SHADE) or an experimental area with no shade (BARREN). The latency to push the weighted gate, and the maximum weight pushed by each heifer, were recorded in both the summer and the autumn. Temperature and humidity were recorded continuously for the duration of the study and were used to calculate the heat index. The maximum weight pushed to enter the WITH SHADE area was greater in summer than in autumn, and was inversely related to the latency to push the weighted gate. Heifers refused to work for access to the BARREN environment. As expected, both the maximum ambient temperatures and heat index were higher in summer than in autumn, and also higher in the non-shaded areas than under the shade in both seasons. Heifers of higher social rank displaced other heifers more often, and spent more time in the shaded areas, particularly in the area with trees plus a shade cloth, than the intermediate and subordinate heifers. We conclude that shade is an important and valued resource for heifers reared on pasture-based systems in sub-tropical environments, particularly during the hot summer months. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact and Management of Thermal Stressors on Cattle)
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15 pages, 1642 KiB  
Article
Albedo and Thermal Ecology of White, Red, and Black Cows (Bos taurus) in a Cold Rangeland Environment
by John Derek Scasta
Animals 2021, 11(5), 1186; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11051186 - 21 Apr 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2741
Abstract
Cattle in high-elevation rangelands experience cold and hot extremes. Given the increase in black hided cattle globally, thermoregulation options on rangelands, and hide color function affecting mammal thermal ecology, this study quantified winter albedo, external cattle temperatures (Tempcow), and differences (ΔT) [...] Read more.
Cattle in high-elevation rangelands experience cold and hot extremes. Given the increase in black hided cattle globally, thermoregulation options on rangelands, and hide color function affecting mammal thermal ecology, this study quantified winter albedo, external cattle temperatures (Tempcow), and differences (ΔT) between Tempcow and ambient air temperature (Tempamb), for different color cattle along a thermal gradient (≈−33 °C to +33 °C). From 2016 to 2018, I measured 638 individual Tempcow × Tempamb combinations for white (n = 183), red (n = 158), and black (n = 297) Bos taurus female cattle free roaming extensive Wyoming, USA rangelands. Pixel brightness of cow images relative to snow indicated mean (±standard error) albedo for white, red, and black cows (n = 3 of each) was 0.69 (±0.15), 0.16 (±0.04), and 0.04 (±0.01), respectively (p = 0.0027). Tempcow was explained by Tempamb (+), clear sky insolation index (+), and cow albedo (−). However, ΔT was explained by Tempamb (−), long-wave radiation (infrared; RadLW (−)), Tempcow (+), and cow albedo (+). Tempamb relative to ΔT was correlated for all hide colors (all p-values < 0.0001; all r2 values > 0.7)), yet slopes (m) were ~2× greater for red and black cows than white cows. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impact and Management of Thermal Stressors on Cattle)
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