As global temperatures rise, heat stress in livestock is becoming a permanent welfare challenge rather than an occasional crisis. Long-term adaptation strategies are needed across housing, genetics, and management.
Livestock heat stress adaptation is a welfare challenge that sits at the intersection of animal welfare, farm economics, and climate change. Animals experiencing heat stress suffer: they divert metabolic resources to thermoregulation, reducing feed intake and immune competence, and in severe cases developing life-threatening hyperthermia. Short-term mitigation through shade, cooling, and water is essential but insufficient for long-term adaptation. Structural investment in climate-controlled housing, selection of heat-tolerant breeds appropriate for each production context, and management practices that reduce heat exposure during vulnerable periods (feeding in cooler times, reducing transport during heat events) are required for sustained welfare improvement in a warming world.