Livestock Production Systems: Towards Sustainability Fit for the 21st Century
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal System and Management".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 December 2021) | Viewed by 8576
Special Issue Editors
Interests: controlling folliculogenesis and cryopreservation of ovarian tissue; daily methane emissions; nutrition and reproduction
Interests: welfare assessment; stress; sustainability; sentience; ethics; control of behaviour
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Demand for animal-derived products is a tale of two worlds. On the one hand, demand and consumption in developed countries has slowed down and will continue to decrease as consumers engage with issues such as climate change, biodiversity reduction, and animal welfare. On the other hand, demand for animal products continues to increase in developing countries at present as incomes increase and urbanization expands. With greater demand, and at the same time changed production requirements, there will be an increasing economic push to intensify animal production but with some significant refinements in methodology.
Intensive animal production systems were developed with a focus on economic aspects of animal-derived products, to maximise production and profit, but not much regard for animal or worker/farmer welfare or environmental impact. Consumers in developed countries, and, increasingly, in developing countries, no longer find such systems to be acceptable. Since the latter regions are where most of the demand will increase in the coming decades, it is of paramount importance that livestock production systems adopt a sustainable approach, including better welfare for livestock. In recent years, efforts across the world have shown that alternative methods of production are possible that incorporate environmental services and animal welfare aspects, increase resource-use efficiency towards carbon-neutral production, and improve social aspects of farming communities. An example is semi-intensive silvopastoral systems. The potential is there and this Special Issue aims to gather current research from across the world that will drive livestock production systems towards the new paradigm of sustainability that is essential for the 21st century.
Dr. Juan Hernandez Medrano
Prof. Donald Broom
Dr. Virgilio Ambriz-Vilchis
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
- sustainability
- animal welfare
- livestock systems
- environmental impact
- farmer welfare
- sustainable livestock practices
- farm animal welfare
- environmental services
- biodiversity.
