Animal Welfare: Florida cattle suffer from heat stress due to climate change, but UF scientists have a solution

Cows are feeling the heat from global warming. Heat stress is one of the biggest challenges facing the beef industry, as it affects the animals’ growth and ability to reproduce.

When cattle are too hot, they tend to stop eating, which in turn threatens the longevity of the food supply coming from that herd.

It’s also the main limiting factor of production efficiency in tropical and subtropical regions, which make up about 45% of beef cattle in the world. About $369 million of beef production is lost annually due to reduced performance nationally.

“And we expect this impact to increase dramatically due to climate change,” said Raluca Mateescu, professor of animal genetics and genomics at the University of Florida.

The heat stress solution

But Mateescu and her colleagues at UF may have found a solution.

They studied the sweat glands of about 2,500 Florida cattle, primarily Brangus, which are a cross between Brahman and Angus cattle. They’re known for their ability to adapt to a wide range of environments and climates.

Cows eliminate about 85% of their body heat through sweating.

"This translates into either an ability to cool better, or not cool properly during a hot day ... that means that we can select our beef cows to maybe increase this sweat gland area,” she said.

Mateescu’s team determined that cattle can be genetically tested and bred with bigger sweat glands to better tolerate the heat, and published their findings in the Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology.

Over the course of five years, the scientists measured the cattle’s body temperature and took skin biopsies.

They also took blood samples from these animals to analyze about 250,000 genetic markers across the genome to see which markers were associated with the sweat gland area.