DEADLY HEAT STRESS

Small island developing countries like Jamaica are experiencing warmer temperatures more frequently because of the detrimental effects of climate change, which is being felt around the world.

And human beings are not the only species struggling to cope with the abnormally high temperatures. Animals are also having a warm time adjusting to the heat.

In fact, experts are warning that if appropriate urgent strategies are not implemented to help animals facing heat stress, the livestock industry faces the threat of a high mortality rate. And with July declared the hottest month on record for any month, and the prediction that the global average temperature will continue to rise, the implications are direr.

At the recently concluded three-day Denbigh Agricultural Industrial and Food Show in May Pen, Clarendon, the use of cooling systems such as industrial circulatory fans and water-cooling fans in the livestock barns demonstrated the transformative changes that may soon become the norm in the agriculture industry.

In Denbigh’s close to 70-year history, this was the first time that the fans were being used to regulate the temperature of the animals at the agricultural show, a representative from the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) told The Sunday Gleaner.

“This year was special because of the elevated temperatures that we are having right now. And in some areas, people have to be trying to get water cooler for the animals to drink from,” the representative said during the August 5-7 staging.

The RADA spokesperson added that the mandated authority under the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining has been working with the farmers to aid with water distribution across the island and the development of catchment pond storage.

“This is a part of a bigger strategy which will help to better mitigate risks that are climate related, especially drought,” the representative said.

In declaring July the hottest month on global record, last week the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that the average temperatures were roughly a third of a degree higher than the previous record set in 2019, and that 2023 is presently the third warmest year to date.

It was also noted that the world’s hottest day, which broke the previous record set in August 2016, occurred on July 6.

IMPORTANT TO KEEP ANIMALS COOL

Veterinarian Dr Patrick Graham, who spoke with The Sunday Gleaner at Denbigh, explained that the animals will feel “tormented” under current temperatures and would, as a result, begin to eat less.

“So, when an animal doesn’t eat, it doesn’t put on weight and it’s just not doing well,” he said.

Graham added that it was, therefore, very important, especially during summer months, to keep the animals cool, while noting that it was once very common for horses at the racetrack to be kept in air-conditioned environments but due to the high cost of electricity the practice has become less common.

Cavonay McLaren, a worker at the Serge Island Dairy farm in Seaforth, St Thomas, which had cattle on display at the 69th staging of Denbigh, told T he Sunday Gleaner that because the cows have been under a lot of heat stress, his boss decided to purchase three industrial fans for the barn, with more to be installed back at the farm in St Thomas to provide the animals with a comfortable environment when going into the milking parlour. He said they produce more milk when they are at ease.

McLaren pointed out that the company tested the use of the fans on the cattle for a period of two months to get them accustomed to the noise. He said since the implementation, the animals have displayed a marked improvement, including being more relaxed, a reduction in excessive panting and improved appetite, as under heat stress they were restless, ate less and were experiencing weight loss.

“You go to some countries [and] the animals are treated like royalty,” Maxine Brown, livestock specialist at RADA, informed The Sunday Gleaner, while speaking to the importance of properly caring for livestock to get optimal results from them.

“Remember, the animals are your moneymakers, so it is your job to make the animals comfortable. If they feel hunger, they feel the thirst, they feel the heat, they’re feeling stressed; and just like you when you’re stressed and your performance starts to fall ... it’s the same thing with the animals,” she explained.

Brown also pointed out that stress can cause poor bone formation in broilers, as well as the production of eggs with thin shells from layer chickens. Overall malnutrition in the animals will also occur, she said, and they will “die off” more quickly due to factors such as dehydration.

SOLAR FANS MOST COST-EFFECTIVE INVESTMENT

“Fans are going to be the way to go,” she said of industrial circulatory and exhaust fans and, in some situations, the use of misting fans along with ventilators to help regulate the body temperature of animals who suffer the most in the heat, like pigs, rabbits and other fury animals, as well as cattle, goats and sheep.

She stated that solar fans would be the most cost-effective investment for small-scale farmers.

“And if push comes to shove, maybe use your house fan as a last resort to try and see if you can create some kind of air flow to keep the chickens cool,” she said.

Cautioning farmers that if they did not take cooling measures seriously and were more concerned with cost-cutting, they would lose their investments, Brown is urging them to install the most efficient fans they can afford.

“The heat is on. This is something that is going to come every year based on what we’re hearing about climate change, so it’s not [a one-off] thing and you hope that maybe next year we don’t have this happening. It is now part of your best practices to implement things to make your animals produce properly,” she said.

A 2013 review article from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) regarding the detrimental impact of heat stress on animal agriculture, more specifically poultry, noted that birds have a high sensitivity to temperature associated with environmental challenges.

Approximately 50 to 60 broiler chicks die per day, according to Wayne Thomas, an egg farmer of over 30 years. Farmers in the St Catherine region, he said, have been complaining about stunted growth of their broilers and how the heat was affecting the laying pattern of layer birds, which cost between $1,800 and $2,000 each.

“Every day is a daily cry from customers about how much birds they are losing,” said Thomas, who is the owner of farm store WT Foods.

According to Thomas, who is also a member of the Jamaica Egg Farmers Association, the broilers that cost around $170 each were the easiest birds to die.

“When you keep the birds until a certain age, like four to five weeks, and every morning you go in you take up 20 and 30 dead birds, it nuh nice because you feed them already and there’s where you lose a lot of money,” Thomas said.

Hi-Pro veterinarian, Dr Kirk Harris, who led discussions on heat stress management for broilers at Denbigh, stated that the design of the poultry house is crucial in keeping the chicks cool, as it should allow for good air movement by using mesh all around the house for optimum ventilation.

It should also be built eight feet tall in an east-west direction in order to benefit from natural air currents. The planting of a canopy of trees for shade is equally practical, Harris said.

Additionally, he advised farmers to adhere to the stocking density of one square foot per bird in the poultry house, and informed them that during the summer months it was necessary to reduce the numbers of birds kept in the poultry house by 20 to 25 per cent.

“So, if you have a hundred birds then you should have a hundred square feet of space, which literally works out to roughly 10 feet by 10 feet. Under regular circumstances when the temperature is nice and cool ... you can have maximum stocking of your house,” Harris said.

As chicks cannot regulate their own body temperature, Harris implored farmers to make use of strategies such as adding ice to clean water for them to drink and to change their feeding routine by removing the food during the hotter parts of the day and feed them during the cooler hours, as digestion increases heat production in birds.

asha.wilks@gleanerjm.com