1.
Nat Food
; 5(3): 206-210, 2024 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38459392
ABSTRACT
Livestock heat stress threatens production, particularly in semi-arid, arid and tropical regions. Using established temperature thresholds for sheep, we modelled +1 °C and +3 °C temperature increases over the historical baseline, estimating that 2.1 million potential lambs are lost annually due to heat stress alone, increasing to 2.5 and 3.3 million, respectively, as temperatures rise. Heat stress poses risks at key periods of the reproductive cycle, with consequences across the Australian sheep flock.