Climate Change

Biography

Biography: Serap Goncu

Abstract

The impacts of global warming on farm animals emerge as the physical environment, biological environment, chemical environment or direct climate impacts of climate. The physical environmental conditions appear with possible changes in the feeding conditions. The sheltering becomes more costly due to extreme climate conditions (too warm or too cold) and certain qualities aimed at performance such as milk and meat productivity are likely to lag behind. It was put forth by the studies conducted that extreme climate conditions have an impact on animals in terms of the milk quality and quantity and cause a decrease in the lactation period in. The studies conducted on the reproduction performance report that the fertility decreases (Alnamier et al., 2002; De Rensis et al., 2002), the estrous cannot be clearly determined and thus the first insemination interval (days) increases and the pregnancy rate decreases (Alnamier et al., 2002; De Rensis et al., 2002), the blood flow into uterus decreases due to the high atmosphere temperature. Increase in body temperature leads to a rise in the uterus temperature, decrease fertilization rate limits the embryonic development and aggravate early embryonic fatalities. It has also been reported that young animals’ growth and development are also negatively affected by these conditions (Koluman Darcan et al., 2009; Çoban et al., 2008; Darcan, 2005). Furthermore, it was reported that high environmental temperature reduce voluntary feed intake, feed efficiency and extended fattening period (Davis et al., 2001a; Davis et al., 2001b; Göncü and Özkütük, 2003; Silanikove, 2000; Harner et al., 1999; Linn, 1997).The grassland or crop production and its quality will be slump down due to decrease in water resources and the land availability for crop production. There will be tendencies towards producing food which are aimed at firstly feeding human on available lands, as the lands appropriate for crop production will shrink due to the increasing sea-water level, drought or salinity, etc. The competitive power of the animal feed production will decrease due to economic reasons and priorities of general agricultural and industrial activities. In this paper the evaluation of risk factors on animal farming and future perspectives and opportunities will be discussed.