Veerasamy Sejian

• M.V.Sc & PhD
• DEAN at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research Puducherry

The effects of climate change on humans and other living ecosystems is an area of on-going research. The ruminant livestock sector is considered to be one of the most significant contributors to the existing greenhouse gas (GHG) pool. However, there are opportunities to combat climate change by reducing the emission of GHGs from ruminants. Methane...

There is considerable research evidence showing substantial decline in animal performance inflicting heavy economic losses when subjected to heat stress. With the development of molecular biotechnologies, new opportunities are available to characterize gene expression and identify key cellular responses to heat stress. These tools will enable impro...

An investigation was conducted to assess the efficacy of a novel antioxidant supplementation, Transcare, in alleviating transportation-induced stress among Bannur sheep. Thirty female Bannur sheep of 10–12 months, were selected and randomly assigned to two groups: Bannur Non-supplemented (BNS) (n = 15) and Bannur Supplemented (BS) (n = 15). The BS...

Ruminants are stated to play a pivotal role of converting feed resources into nutritious outputs suitable for human consumption, which primarily is attributed to the diversified rumen microbiota they harbour. The rumen microbial niche is however not explored to its complete potential due to several limitations, the crucial one being the inability t...

Climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the biggest risks to sustainable livestock production in coastal locations and is recognised as a serious global development issue impacting many sectors of the economy. Growth, milk production, and reproduction of coastal livestock are directly impacted by climate change. The reduced availability of wat...

Goats are considered to be ideal climate resilient animals in the changing climate scenario. They are the most widely dispersed domestic animals worldwide, encompassing dry tropical, sub-tropical, and arid regions of developing and developed countries. Goat farming plays a pivotal role in livelihood and socioeconomic aspects of small, marginal, and...

Goats are considered to be ideal climate resilient animals in the changing climate scenario. They are the most widely dispersed domestic animals worldwide, encompassing dry tropical, sub-tropical, and arid regions of developing and developed countries. Goat farming plays a pivotal role in livelihood and socioeconomic aspects of small, marginal, and...

The climate change-associated abnormal weather patterns negatively influences the productivity and performance of farm animals. Heat stress is the major detrimental factor hampering production, causing substantial economic loss to the livestock industry. Therefore, it is important to identify heat-tolerant breeds that can survive and produce optima...

The livestock sector, essential for maintaining food supply and security, encounters numerous obstacles as a result of climate change. Rising global populations exacerbate competition for natural resources, affecting feed quality and availability, heightening livestock disease risks, increasing heat stress, and contributing to biodiversity loss. Al...

Indigenous breeds of cattle are suitable for varying climatic conditions of the tropical environment by virtue of a series of species-specific traits and adaptive strategies. Such traits and adaptive strategies could be generally classed into morphological/anatomical, physiological, behavioural, neuro-endocrine, haematological, and molecular and ce...

Heat stress impacts ruminant livestock production on varied levels in this alarming climate breakdown scenario. The drastic effects of the global climate change-associated heat stress in ruminant livestock demands constructive evaluation of animal performance bordering on effective monitoring systems. In this climate-smart digital age, adoption of...

Given a significant climate-flexible and socio-economic role in developing nations, environmental heat stress imposes a major financial impact on sheep production systems globally endangering their production, reproduction, and growth. In this regard, the adverse effects of heat stress on sheep production systems have to be addressed through adopti...

Rising global temperatures due to climate change pose an increased risk of heat stress (HS) in livestock, which requires accurate prediction methods to improve animal welfare and mitigate heat-related economic losses. In this literature review, we aimed to critically examine the potential of digitalisation in precision livestock farming from the pe...

This chapter explains about the Adaption, Mitigation Amelioration Strategies for the improvement of various livestock to the changing climate scenario

This Book chapter explains about the impact of climate stress on the farming Livestock

The general objective of this study is to comparatively assess the climate-resilient potential of four different poultry genotypes-Giriraja (n = 8), Country chicken (n = 8), Naked neck (n = 8), and Kadaknath (n = 8)—reared in a hot-humid tropical environment. Birds from all genotypes had ad libitum access to feed and water and were exposed to ident...

Climate change is currently an undisputable reality and an increased environmental temperature in recent times is one of the indicators for the changing climatic scenario. “Heat stress” detrimentally affects ruminant production, causing adverse economic consequences to the producers. Therefore, mitigating the adverse impact of heat stress on rumina...

While climate change is a global phenomenon, its negative impacts are felt more severely by poor people in developing countries, who rely heavily on the natural resource for their livelihoods. Elevated ambient temperature and inadequate and low-quality feed are the major factors which contribute towards under-production of farm animals in tropical...

Stress is continually imposed upon dairy cows to produce more and more milk. To maximize yield, it is imperative to keep cows as comfortable as possible and maintain feed intake for conversion into milk. Heat stress negatively affects cow comfort, dry matter intake and, subsequently, milk yield; thus, management strategies must be applied to counte...

We assessed newborn lambs from two hair-coat sheep breeds, the black Santa Ines (n = 29) and white Dorper (n = 26), to determine how they behaviourally and physiologically respond to the prevailing thermal conditions in an equatorial semi-arid environment. Measurements of hair-coat surface temperature, rectal temperature and the lambs’ exposure to...

Simple Summary Betaine, a natural by-product of the sugar beet industry, can improve growth performance when fed to production animals, particularly under increased environmental temperatures. While the positive effects of betaine in monogastric species like pigs and poultry are well investigated, efficacy in ruminants is less clear. The increasing...

Livestock production faces a growing demand for animal products amidst climate change threats. Rising temperatures, altered weather patterns, and droughts induce abiotic stress (heat, disease, water, nutrient) in livestock, lowering growth, reproduction, and product quality. While animals have some tolerance, these stressors significantly impact an...

This study investigated the impact of heat stress on growth and carcass traits in four poultry genotypes-Giriraja, Country chicken, Naked Neck and Kadaknath reared in a hot and humid tropical environment. Birds from all genotypes had ad libitum access to feed and water while being challenged with consistently high environmental temperatures in the...

Brucellosis, caused by various species of the genus Brucella, remains a significant concern in small ruminant populations worldwide. Brucellosis, a zoonotic disease, presents a re-emerging threat globally, with widespread prevalence except in a few countries. Its significance arises from the substantial economic losses incurred in livestock and the...

The primary aim of this study was to explore the effect of silymarin (SM) and selenium-yeast (SY) on antioxidant status, lipid peroxidation and metabolic hormones in Barbari goat during heat stress. Thirty-two Barbari goats (age: 7.2±0.8 months; weight: 10.5±0.9 kg) were randomly divided into four groups as Group I (CON; n=8); Group II (SM600; n=8)...

Climate change and its impact on the livestock production

Given the climate projections for livestock rearing regions globally, understanding the inflammatory status of livestock under various heat loads will be informative to animal welfare and management. A survey of plasma inflammatory markers was conducted, and blood leucocyte counts followed to investigate the capacity of the ~ 500 kg grain fed Black...

A study was designed to identify the genomic regions associated with milk production traits in a dairy cattle population reared by smallholder farmers in the harsh and challenging tropical savanna climate of Bengaluru, India. This study is a first-of-its-kind attempt to identify the selection sweeps for the dairy cattle breeds reared in such an env...

A genomic study was conducted to identify the effects of urbanization and environmental contaminants with heavy metals on selection footprints in dairy cattle populations reared in the megacity of Bengaluru, South India. Dairy cattle reared along the rural–urban interface of Bengaluru with/without access to roughage from public lakeshores were sele...

Background: The efficiency of reproduction in buffaloes can be increased by being able to spot buffaloes in estrus, as silent heat is a severe problem in this species. Proteins of urinary exosomes are identified to be better physiological biomarkers when compared to cell free proteins as these extracellular vesicles (EVs) are tiny in size, have add...

Background: Identifying buffaloes in estrus is crucial for enhancing the efficiency of reproduction as silent heat is a major concern in this species. Review of literature indicated the role of Tamm-Horsfall protein (THP) is associated with the physiological events around the estrus stage. Hence, the present study was aimed to quantify the expressi...

Growth is a complex biological process which occurs through a series of cellular proliferation, cellular differentiation, and morphogenesis resulting in a progressive increase in the size and weight of an animal. Growth takes place through the processes of increase of cell numbers and increases of cell size. Growth and development of cells, tissues...

The cardiovascular system comprising the heart and the connecting blood vessels plays a vital role in maintaining the homeostasis. It integrates three basic functional components, heart as the pump that circulates the blood through a network of the blood vessels. This integrated system is able to adapt to the circulatory demands under different phy...

Physiology is the dynamic study of normal functions in a living system. It answers how the cells, organs, organ systems work and how it is integrated at the organism level. This chapter attempts to provide the readers with updated information on animal physiology evolution from past, present, and future perspectives. Physiology is the unit of biolo...

The elevated or low temperature reduces growth, egg and meat production in birds as a result of reduced feed intake and impaired intestinal development. Further, heat/cold stress affects the digestion, absorption of nutrients and impaired immune functions. The increased respiration eliminates more CO2 that lowers the formation of HCO3 and results i...

Environment is surroundings of a living organism consisting of natural forces, living things that facilitate circumstances for the progress and improvement along with risk and impairment. Environmental physiology facilitates the understanding of the interrelationship between the environmental factors and animal. The environmental factors that influ...

Animal behavior has emerged as a multi and interdisciplinary science, encompassing such sciences as physiology, pathology, immunology, endocrinology, ecology, genetics, and neuroscience. Neuroethology merges into cellular biochemistry, physiology, and molecular genetics and also at the other end, the study of animal groups extends from the evolutio...

Products obtained from sheep have an economically important place in the world. Their adaptability to different climatic conditions, their ease of care and feeding, their high utilization of poor pasture areas with low yield and quality, the ease of flock management, their high twinning rate, and their short intergenerational period are some of the...

Extensive research has been conducted globally on the impact of heat stress (HS) on animal health and milk production in dairy cows. In this article, we examine the possible reasons for the decrease in milk production in Brown Swiss (BS) cows during the autumn season, known as the autumn low milk yield syndrome (ALMYS). This condition has been exte...

Subclinical mastitis (SCM) is a major health problem of dairy animals in India and across the globe. An identification of potential risk factors of SCM can help for efficient udder health management in dairy animals. In this study, apparently healthy cows (HF crossbred: n = 45; Deoni: n = 43) were screened for SCM during different seasons through m...

This study evaluated the impact of combined stressors (heat and nutritional stresses) on the growth and adaptive capability of Sahiwal (SW) and Karan Fries (KF) calves during the summer season. Calves in each breed were randomly divided into four groups. In SW breed the groupings were as follows: SWC (n = 4; Sahiwal Control); SWHS (n = 4; Sahiwal H...

Heat tolerance, especially under climate change scenarios, plays an increasingly import factor in pig and chicken production. We therefore evaluated bibliographic mapping of citation, co-occurrence of keywords, co-citation and bibliographic coupling for heat tolerance, and these species. Data was obtained from Scopus (Elsevier) and analysed in Vosv...

A novel study was conducted to elucidate heat-stress responses on a number of hair-and skin-based traits in two indigenous goat breeds using a holistic approach that considered a number of phenotypic and genomic variables. The two goat breeds, Kanni Aadu and Kodi Aadu, were subjected to a simulated heat-stress study using the climate chambers. Four...

Climate change is a global millennial challenge affecting humans in all facets of life. In Africa, livestock production is one of the sectors most affected by climate change because livestock production is extensive, smallholders operated, and low external input operation. The paper gives an insight for sustaining Africa’s livestock production in r...

This study looks at the bibliographic mapping of citation, co-occurrence of keywords, co-citation and bibliographic coupling for heat tolerance in farm animals. Data was obtained from Scopus (Elsevier) and analysed in Vosviewer. Several salient points emerge from our analysis. We found a total of 1728 documents from 102 countries, of which 54% are...

Heat stress causes functional and metabolic alterations in different cells and tissues. There are several pathomorphological changes and biomarkers associated with head load in adaptive and productive organs of livestock. Heat stress-induced histopathological alterations in livestock were categorized as degenerative changes (fatty degeneration, ste...

A comprehensive study was conducted to assess the effects of seasonal transition and temperature humidity index (THI) on the adaptive responses in crossbred dairy cows reared in a tropical savanna region. A total of 40 lactating dairy cattle reared by small-scale dairy farmers in Bengaluru, India, were selected for this study. The research period c...

This review makes an attempt to characterize the physical attributes of heat tolerance, thermal equilibrium and thermal stress thresholds for dairy cows living in tropical environments, with a particular emphasis on pasture-based systems. Under such circumstances, the radiant heat load is the principal climatic factor that determines rates of heat...

Non-invasive methods of detecting heat stress magnitude for livestock is gaining momentum in the context of global climate change. Therefore, the objective of this review is to focus on the synthesis information pertaining to recent efforts to develop heat stress detection systems for livestock based on multiple behavioral and physiological respons...

An attempt to comprehend the status of the factors driving adoption of technologies with specific reference to goat farming in the changing climate scenario was studied through narrative literature review and meta-analysis. Review of past studies suggests that the extension system which involves technology transfer activities suffers with limitatio...

An attempt to comprehend the status of the factors driving adoption of technologies with specific reference to goat farming in the changing climate scenario was studied through narrative literature review and meta-analysis. Review of past studies suggests that the extension system which involves technology transfer activities suffers with limitatio...

An attempt to comprehend the status of factors driving adoption of technologies with specific reference to goat farming in the changing climatic scenario was studied through narrative literature review and meta-analysis. Review of past studies suggests that the extension system suffers with limitations of financial and man-power resources. Addition...

This study aimed to estimate the changes in the milk yield, milk fat, energy indicators [NEFA, BHBA, Dry Matter Intake (DMI) and Body Condition Score (BCS)] and concentration of innate immune molecules (Haptoglobin: Hp, Serum Amyloid A: SAA, TLR-4, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-8), during the transition period in primiparous and multiparous dual-purpo...

A study was carried out to evaluate the effect of heat stress on carcass traits and expression of Myostatin,Heat Shock Protein (HSP) 70 and HSP110 expression in skeletal muscle of Kanni Aadu goat. Twelve female (one year old) Kanni Aadu goats were randomly allocated into two groups of six animals each, control (KC) goats were placed in the thermo n...

An in vivo study aiming to investigate the rumen methanogens community structure was conducted in Mandya sheep fed on straw and concentrate diet. The ruminal fluid samples were collected and processed for unravelling the rumen microbiota and methanogens diversity. Further, the daily enteric methane emission and methane yield was also quantified usi...

Among all livestock systems in tropical regions, the dairy sector is facing huge challenges to sustain productivity under the rapidly changing climatic conditions. To date, there is a lack of knowledge on the combined effects of climate, season, and farm location on trait responses in different cattle breeds. Consequently, this study presents a nov...

Increasing water scarcity and simultaneously growing demands for food and feed challenge agricultural production. Globally livestock feed sourcing is one of the major causes for water depletion, therefore increasing livestock water use efficiency (LWUE) is necessary. In this direction, primary data was collected from 240 small and medium sized dair...

The negative effects of climate change on livestock production was mediated predominantly through the indirect impacts such as sudden disease outbreaks, less feed and water available as well as shrinking pasture lands. Therefore, it is very essential for the scientific community to identify the best species among the livestock which could cope with...

India possesses vast genetic resources in terms of holding several indigenous breeds of goats. This review highlights the climate resilient potential of various indigenous goat breeds in the Indian sub-continent. Given the fact of goat being projected as ideal climate resilient species, the information in this review could be very useful for the po...

Climate change is inevitable and thus there is an immediate need to plan for the future amelioration and mitigation strategies to sustain livestock production. This chapter is therefore aimed to shed some light on few supreme strategies that need to be considered while planning to tackle future climate change effects in livestock sector. To begin w...

Climate change and food security are the two primary issues that daunt agricultural researchers across the globe. The world is battling to find solution to both these issues as we need to feed the expected human population of over 9.6 billion by 2050. Therefore, it is very vital to sustain agricultural production and livestock sector is particularl...

Climate change directly impacts food production system stability, domestic or through the global food market. This threat necessitates the identification of various measures to sustain agricultural production to meet the growing population’s demand. Among agricultural sectors, livestock has the potential to fortify resilience to climate change, as...

The main focus of our research lies on livestock-environment interactions and how heat load in dairy cows can be measured. Several studies have used animal-related parameters to measure heat stress in individual cows. In this report, an overview of different heat stress indicators is given, focusing on non-invasive indicators that analyze different...

This chapter addresses in detail the various impacts of climate change on livestock production and welfare. Among all the environmental stressors, heat stress is of major concern as it has the most deleterious impact on livestock production especially in tropical countries which hold a major proportion of the world’s livestock population. One of th...

This book describes the importance of sustainable livestock production from a food security perspective in the changing climate scenario. It covers the amelioration of climate change impacts and describes the various mitigation strategies to reduce enteric methane emissions. The book targets sustainable livestock production by covering diverse conc...

This chapter is an attempt to collect and synthesize information pertaining to climate change associated feed production constraints for livestock and also addresses in detail the various concepts associated with climate resilient livestock production. The chapter would give an overview on the subject and the information generated and presented sho...

Background Antioxidant intakes are one of the most cherished dietary approaches for the management of oxidative stress-induced liver damages. These antioxidants exist as the bioactive compounds present in plants and other natural sources functioning in varieties of ways from acting as direct scavengers of the free radicals to acting as the modifier...

This experiment was conducted to study the effect of a prolonged hot period on the fatty acid (FA) composition in blood serum of dairy cows. Eighteen multiparous Holstein cows were randomly assigned to the hyperthermia group (HYP, n = 8) in August (summer season) and the control group (CON, n = 10) in October (autumn season). Blood from animals of...

A study was conducted to assess the impact of heat stress on various carcass traits, meat quality variables and gene expression patterns which governs meat quality in indigenous female Kodi Aadu breed. The study was conducted for 45 days in climate chamber with 12 animals randomly allocated into two groups of six animals each, KC (n=6; Female; Cont...

A study was conducted to assess the different proportions of protein energy ratio on the adaptive capabilities of Salem Black goats based on changes in both phenotypic and selective genotypic traits. Forty adult Salem Black does (average body weight (BW) 16.0 kg) were divided into five groups, GI (n = 8; ICAR recommended; crude protein (CP) 80 g an...

Climate change is an imminent threat to livestock production. One adaptation strategy is selection for heat tolerance. While it is established that the ATP1A1 gene and its product play an important role in the response to many stressors, there has been no attempt to characterize the sequence or to perform expression profiling of the gene in product...

An in vivo study was conducted to compare the enteric methane emissions and diversity of ruminal methanogens in cattle and buffaloes kept in the same environment and fed on the same diet. Six cattle and six buffaloes were fed on a similar diet comprising Napier (Pennisetum purpureum) green grass and concentrate in 70:30. After 90 days of feeding, t...

The study was conducted to assess the effect of heat stress on the meat production and quality variables in indigenous Malabari breed goats. The study was conducted during 45 days using twelve 10 months to one year old Malabari goats. The goats were randomly allocated into two groups: MC (n = 6; Malabari control) and MHS (n = 6; Malabari Heat stres...

In the last decades, livestock species have been severely affected by heat stress because of increasing temperatures, which has threatened animal welfare and decreased production. Based on thermal comfort indices and ensemble climate projections, we analyzed the current and future global spatiotemporal patterns of the heat exposure of cattle in 10...

In the agriculture sector, livestock are considered extremely resilient to climate change and are tipped to play a significant role in ensuring food security to meet the increased demands of growing human population by 2050. Compared to other domestic species, goats are considered the ideal animal model for climate change due to its high thermal an...

Seasonality affects milk production, its composition, as well as the spread of mastitis in dairy cows. The aim of the research work was to study the way the seasons affect milk productivity and the manifestation of mastitis among Ukrainian brown Swiss cows at a commercial dairy unit, with the animals kept in naturally ventilated premises. The relat...

Aflatoxins (AFs) are a class of mycotoxins produced by the toxigenic Aspergillus fungi and are common contaminants of foods and feeds. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), the most potent aflatoxin, is well characterized to reduce productive performance and mortality in broilers. This exclusive review summarizes the efficacy of various plant products and phytochem...

Establishing the functional significance of rumen microbiome during heat stress may provide crucial information for elucidating climate resilience in goat. The current study was thus designed with an aim to assess the impact of heat stress on the rumen microbiome across three indigenous goat breeds. To prove this hypothesis, six experimental groups...

The current changing climate trend poses a threat to the productive efficacy and welfare of livestock across the globe. This review is an attempt to synthesize information pertaining to the applications of various genomic tools and statistical models that are available to identify climate-resilient dairy cows. The different functional and economica...

Citation: Sejian, V.; Silpa, M.V.; Reshma Nair, M.R.; Devaraj, C.; Krishnan, G.; Bagath, M.; Chauhan, S.S.; Suganthi, R.U.; Fonseca, V.F.C.; König, S.; et al. Heat Stress and Goat Welfare: Adaptation and Production Considerations.

Background: Healthy omega-3 fatty acid (n-3FA) enriched poultry meat can be achieved through dietary supplementation of n-3 FA rich feed ingredients like fish meal, linseed, linseed oil, marine algae, etc to broiler birds. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementing linseed oil (LO) in combination with natural antioxidants like...

Goats are projected as an ideal climate adapted animal because of the various advantages associated with this species such as higher thermo-tolerance, drought tolerance, ability to survive on limited pastures, and high disease resistance. With the projected climate associated adversities such as high temperature, shrinking grazing lands, less feed,...

Background Milk is an important high-quality animal protein source in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although the true ileal digestibility and absorption of milk has been shown to be high in French adults, this may be lower in individuals from LMICs who are at risk of environmental enteropathy. Objective To determine the true ileal indi...

A healthy gastro intestinal system is important for poultry to achieve its maximum production potential. This paper aims gut health and immunity to improve production in the poultry sector. Genetics, Nutrition and Bio security ate the factors influences the production. Gut consisting of various pH and micro biota throughout is an advantageous featu...