Climate change is intensifying heat stress welfare impacts on livestock globally, requiring proactive management and infrastructure investment to protect animal welfare.
Heat stress in livestock represents a growing welfare crisis as global temperatures rise. The physiological impacts of heat stress - elevated cortisol, reduced feed intake, immune suppression, and reproductive failure - cause genuine suffering and cumulative health harm. Livestock in countries with increasingly extreme summer temperatures face welfare risks that farm infrastructure in many regions is not designed to address. The welfare case for investment in shade, cooling, and ventilation infrastructure is strong and is reinforced by the economic case: heat stress causes significant productivity losses that rational investment in cooling can partially offset. Climate adaptation planning must include livestock welfare as a core consideration.