Heat Stress as a Source of Infertility in Cattle Production
Torrens, F1, Marahatta, S2, Duran, I.L3 and Ahaotu, E.O4,
1Department of Physical Chemistry, Universitat de València, Spain.
2Department of Biological Sciences, Agriculture and Forestry University, Nepal.
3College of Graduate Studies, Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University, Philippines
4Department of Animal Production Technology, Imo State Polytechnic Umuagwo, Nigeria.
Email: vieng663@hotmail.com
ABSTRACT
Climate change, with a constant increase in the Earth temperature, negatively affects livestock production and health. Cattle are an important contributor to milk, meat, draught power and leather production in many
developing countries. Due to ineffective cooling mechanisms like scanty sweat glands and hair coat they are more predisposed to heat stress causing huge economic losses to the cattle breeders as well as dairy industry.
The thermal stress primarily affects the hypothalamic-hypophyseal-ovarian axis and it is the interplay of endocrinological imbalances which affects the reproductive cycle causing seasonality and anoestrus. Hence
heat stress needs to be alleviated to maintain the reproductive efficiency in cattle and prevent economic losses.Keywords: Reproductive Efficiency, Heat stress, Anoestrus, Cattle, Infertility.
