EU Foundation Year Essay: Global Warming Effect on Livestock System

This essay, written for an EU Foundation Year course, analyzes the significant impact of global warming on livestock production and reproduction systems. It highlights the adverse effects of rising temperatures and climate change, which impose thermal stress on animals, affecting their health, production, and reproductive capabilities. The essay draws upon research by Balamurugan et al. (2018) and others to explore the consequences of greenhouse gas accumulation and environmental factors like high temperature and humidity. It emphasizes the economic implications for countries dependent on livestock and agriculture, such as India and Australia. Furthermore, the essay suggests mitigation strategies, including improved housing, water management, breed selection, and the reduction of pollution and deforestation to protect livestock from the effects of global warming.

Running Head: Global Warming
Effect of Global Warming on Livestock Production and Reproduction
Essay
System04104
4/18/2019

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Effect of Global Warming in Livestock Production and Reproduction
System
Livestock production plays a vital role in agriculture sector and its contribution in
GDP of developing countries is unavoidable. The importance of livestock production and
effect of global warming on livestock production has been discussed by Balamurugan,
Tejaswi, Priya, Sasikala, Karuthadurai, Ramamoorthy, & Jena (2018) in their article “Effect
of Global Warming on Livestock Production and Reproduction: An Overview” in the Indian
and Global context. Authors of this article are so worried about the increasing temperature of
the earth that imposes thermal stress on the animals that affects their production and
reproduction system. Authors of this article focus on developing new strategies that helps to
protect these livestock from thermal stress by changes in housing system, water management,
and stop deforestation (Balamurugan, Tejaswi, Priya, Sasikala, Karuthadurai, Ramamoorthy,
& Jena, 2018).
Global warming is a serious threat for the whole world because it increases the
temperature of the earth due to accumulation of greenhouse gases in atmosphere. It is not
only adversely affecting the climate rather it is also affecting the human life in various ways.
Animals and trees are very important part of human life because these livestock products help
human being in various ways such as it dis-balancing the ecosystem.
It is a major concern for the whole world that climate change and global warming
effect the livestock production system because surrounding environmental conditions directly
affect the heat gain or loss processes of animals. Climate change results in high temperature,
humidity, and other environmental factors that directly affect the health of animals and our
climate as well (Abbasi & Abbasi, 2016). Global warming causes death of many sea creatures
and animals. This is also affecting the economy of those countries, which depends on
livestock production and other agriculture business such as India and Australia (Rojas-
Downing, Nejadhashemi, Harrigan, & Woznicki, 2017). Global warming causes breed
changes in animals that result in less life of animals. If we talking about cow, goats, buffalos
etc. then we found that their milk production system is also effected. Although, people should
consider these things, maintain a good housing system for these animals, and provide proper

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conditions that are appropriate for breeding and for their production system. Apart from this,
people can also select proper breed of animals that is an alternative option of the problem. As
per the study of this article and analysis, it has been clear that Global warming directly affect
the production and reproduction system of livestock and it is major concerns for those
developing countries that depends on livestock products and agriculture (Darwin, 2017). The
continuous increasing number of deaths of domestic, forest, and sea creatures is also a major
concern for the whole world. Therefore, people should look to improve the environmental
conditions by reducing pollution and restrict deforestation, because forest plays a vital role in
reducing global warming and pollution emission control reduces the effect of greenhouse
gases on the livestock.

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References
Balamurugan, B., Tejaswi, V., Priya, K., Sasikala, R., Karuthadurai, T., Ramamoorthy, M., &
Jena, D. (2018). Effect of global warming on livestock production and reproduction:
An overview. Research & Reviews: Journal of Veterinary Science and
Technology, 6(3), 12-18.
Rojas-Downing, M. M., Nejadhashemi, A. P., Harrigan, T., & Woznicki, S. A. (2017).
Climate change and livestock: Impacts, adaptation, and mitigation. Climate Risk
Management, 16, 145-163.
Darwin, R. (2017). The impact of global warming on agriculture: a Ricardian analysis:
comment. Climate Change, 125.
Abbasi, T., & Abbasi, S. A. (2016). Reducing the global environmental impact of livestock
production: the minilivestock option. Journal of Cleaner Production, 112, 1754-1766.