Physiological Response to Heat Stress and its Nutritional Management in Dairy Animals

As global warming progresses, animals experience heat stress more frequently and for longer periods of time, resulting in mortality and severe economic loss. Animals strive to regulate their body temperature through behavioral and physiological responses that increase heat loss and decreasing heat generation. Heat stress in animals can be reduced by physically altering the environment, developing of less sensitive breeds and improving nutritional management strategies that use dietary water, protein, fat, micronutrients and feed additives. This article covers how the bodies of dairy animals react to heat stress and how different diets might help to alleviate the problem.