Climate Change and Livestock Production: Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

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 concepts of amelioration, mitigation, and policy up-gradation. Further, it examines various adverse impacts of climate change on growth, meat, milk, and reproduction in livestock. Most importantly, the book covers novel aspects of quantifying heat stress response of livestock based on non-invasive methodologies, including infrared thermal imaging, sensor-based applications, hair, urine, and fecal cortisol estimation. Particular emphasis was given to describing the skin-based novel approaches to establish climate resilience in indigenous breeds. The book provides detailed descriptions of alleviating climate change impacts on shelter management, nutritional interventions, and genetics-based strategies involving advanced genomic tools. Lastly, it highlights the livestock species which could be considered ideal climate-resilient animal models to withstand the adversities associated with climate change.

Dr. Veerasamy Sejian, M.V.Sc & PhD., is a Principal Scientist at ICAR-National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bangalore, India. His central thrust area of research is on "Climate Change and Livestock Production." Dr. Sejian is the team leader in establishing the concept of "Multiple stresses impacting small ruminants." His current research focuses on identifying molecular markers for different environmental stresses in small ruminants with the primary focus to develop agro-ecological zone-specific thermo-tolerant breeds. Dr. Sejian has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, 99 book chapters, 285 invited/lead papers, 175 conference papers, and 22 technical manuals.

Further, Dr. Sejian has published three International Springer books. Dr. Sejian did his first post-doctorate at The Ohio State University, USA. He was bestowed with Endeavour Research Fellowship by the Australian Government to pursue a post-doctorate at The University of Queensland, Australia. For his outstanding contribution to animal science, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has bestowed him with the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri Outstanding Young Scientist Award in 2012. Further, Career360, an academic organization in India, had selected Dr. Sejian to be one of the top 10 scientists in India under the environmental sciences category during 2017-18. Dr. Sejian is also listed in the world's top 2% scientists by Stanford University, USA, during 2020 and 2021. Dr. Sejian is also listed in the world's top 1% of scientists by PubMed based on the last 10 years of publications in heat stress. In addition, Dr. Sejian is also serving as Field Editor in Springer's International Journal of Biometeorology, Associate Editor in Elsevier's Small Ruminants Research, and Academic Editor in PLOS Climate. He has developed four technologies and also has one patent granted.

Dr. Surinder Singh Chauhan, DVM, PhD., is the Senior Lecturer in the Department of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Australia, and has 12 years of research and teaching in veterinary and animal science sciences in three countries, including Australia, India, and the USA. Dr. Chauhan obtained his Bachelor of Veterinary Science & Animal Husbandry and Master of Veterinary Science from CSK, Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, India. Dr. Chauhan has served the State of Himachal Pradesh, India, for more than 10 years and has provided his services as Senior Veterinary Officer and Veterinary Officer in the various Civil Veterinary Hospitals and Livestock Breeding Farms. He has also served as Assistant Professor in The Department of Veterinary Physiology and Livestock Production and Management, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the CSK, Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, India. Dr. Chauhan moved to Australia in 2011 following his selection for the prestigious Australian Leadership Award (Ph.D. Scholarship) from the Australian Govt and completed his Ph.D. under the guidance of Prof Frank Dunshea, Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Melbourne in 2014. Later Dr. Chauhan completed his Post-doctorate in Animal Science (Muscle Biology and Meat Science) at The Ohio State University, Columbus, USA. Dr. Chauhan has presented his research at various national and international conferences, including 7 keynote papers, and has published more than 70 refereed research papers. At The University of Melbourne, he is leading the Australia India Collaborations for heat stress mitigation and Sustainable Livestock production funded by the Australian Government Australia-India Council.

Dr. Chinnasamy Devaraj, M.V.Sc & PhD., is a Scientist at the Division of Bioenergetics and Environmental Sciences, ICAR-National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bangalore, India. His central thrust area of research is on "Energy metabolism, Environmental Physiology, and Livestock Production." His current research focuses on unraveling the physiological role of adipokines associated with energy metabolism in small ruminants. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has awarded Junior Research Fellowship based on All India entrance for Pursuing M.V.Sc Programme (2004-2006) at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, India. ICAR Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences (Animal and Fisheries Sciences) for 2007-2008. He has published more than 160 research articles, including 25 peer-reviewed articles, 5 book chapters, 45 invited/lead papers, 74 conference papers and 7 technical manuals. Presently, he is serving as a reviewer for the International Journal of Biometeorology and Journal of Agrometeorology.

Dr. Pradeep Kumar Malik, MSc & PhD., is presently working as Principal Scientist at the ICAR-National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru. He was an Assistant Professor at Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, and Senior Scientist at NIANP. Dr. Malik has accomplished International Training at the CSIRO, Queensland, Australia, and post-doctoral fellowship under the Endeavour Research Program of the Australian Government at the University of Queensland, Australia, in 2014–15. His primary research area is enteric methane measurement and amelioration in livestock. He is handling a multicentric project on' Estimation of Methane Emissions under Different Feeding Systems and Development of Mitigation Strategies.' He is also associated with the ILRI-ICAR collaborative project on' Methane Emissions and its Mitigation' and the DBT-DFG Project on' Contamination of Feed and Fodders with heavy metals and agrochemicals impact on milk composition, rumen microbes and methanogenesis in dairy cattle along with the Rural-Urban Interface of Bengaluru.' He has developed a state-wise national inventory on enteric methane emissions from Indian livestock using primary data on methane production potential. He has created two farmers' friendly anti-methanogenic products, "Harit Dhara" and "Tamarin Plus," and filed four patents. He has published more than 50 research papers in international and national journals of repute, two international books by CABI and Springer in livestock production and climate change, and 40 book chapters. He also has 264 NCBI submissions in his name. He was also the recipient of the prestigious Australian Ambassador Award in 2015 by the Australian High Commission in India.

Dr. Raghavendra Bhatta, M.V.Sc & PhD., is currently the Director of ICAR- National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology (NIANP), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. During his research career spanning 27 years, he has done extensive research work involving small ruminant nutrition concerning 'plant phenolics.' He has developed the All-India state-wise inventory on enteric methane emission based on primary data and has evolved simple, eco-friendly strategies for enteric methane reduction in livestock. Dr. Bhatta was awarded the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) post-doctoral fellowship (2004-2006) at NILGS, Japan. He was invited to present theme papers at the Greenhouse Gases and Animal Agriculture (GGAA) Conference at Zurich, Switzerland in 2005; GGAA 2010 conference in Banff, Canada and GGAA 2016 conference in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Bhatta is the Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the National Academy of Veterinary Science, and the National Academy of Diary Sciences – India. He is the recipient of several research awards, including the prestigious Sir CV Raman State Award from the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology, Govt. of Karnataka, and the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award for Outstanding Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2019 by ICAR. Dr. Bhatta is recognized as one of the world's top 2% scientists by Stanford University during 2020 and 2021. Dr. Bhatta has published more than 100 research articles in journals and presented more than 100 papers in conferences of national and international reputation and has authored 3 books, one each in Cambridge University Press, Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International, and Springer. He has written 45 chapters in books and has two patents to his credit.