Livestock Housing in Warm Climatic Conditions: Monitoring Impacts and Defining Mitigations Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

The global demand for livestock products is expected to increase by 2050, mainly due to the increasing human population. Due to climate change, heat stress is a growing issue for livestock production, since it produces negative effects on animal health and welfare, and reproductive performance. Moreover, a warm climate affects ammonia and greenhouse gases emissions, the quality of feed crop and forage, water availability, and biodiversity. The main challenge for the livestock sector in a warm climate is how to identify, improve and promote strategies for reducing animal heat stress and the related effects.

This Special Issue welcomes recent results from the research teams that assess these effects of warm conditions on livestock breeding and the related mitigation strategies. Original research and reviews will be considered for this Special Issue and will be not limited to the following topics:

• Housing conditions, facility design, and indoor climate control: building geometry and materials, equipment, ventilation system and cooling;
• Animal welfare and behaviour: monitoring systems and strategies to increase animal welfare;
• Yield and quality of livestock production;
• Ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions: gas concentration monitoring, emission modelling, and emission factors estimation at the farm and landscape level;
• Animal manure production, storage and utilization chain;
• Application of monitoring systems for precision livestock farming: instruments, measuring techniques, and methods;
• Mitigation strategies and techniques to control emissions and reduce climate change impacts on livestock.

Dr. Provvidenza Rita D'Urso
Dr. Alberto Finzi
Guest Editors

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• ammonia
• greenhouse gases
• emissions factor
• livestock production
• measurement techniques
• animal welfare and behaviour
• housing management
• heat stress
• mitigation strategies