Agricultural Reviews

Climate change is a widely accepted truth that has impacted all ecosystems and will continue to do so if left unchecked. The effects of some elements have received more attention than others and animals fall into the latter category. Even among the components of climate change impacts on animals, production-related implications have received emphasis. In contrast, the implications on health in general and infectious illnesses in particular, have been overlooked. Despite not being well investigated, it may be predicted that, as with people, climate change, particularly global warming, will significantly impact animal health, both overt and covert. Temperaturerelated disease, death and animal morbidity during extreme weather events are direct repercussions. Indirect effects follow more complicated pathways and include those resulting from animals’ attempts to adapt to thermal environments or the influence of climate on microbial populations, the spread of vector-borne diseases, feed and water scarcities, or food-borne diseases and host resistance to infectious agents. It is necessary to develop tools and strategies for an animal illness surveillance system that integrates animal data with appropriate climatic variables. The development and application of methods for integrating climate data with disease monitoring systems is necessary to improve animal illness prevention, mitigation and adaptive responses to heat stress.