Letters

Letters
ANIMAL WELFARE recognise and to treat heat stress in animals. climate and their limitations. Proceedings of the Linnean
Society of London 152, 190-219
This was considered essential knowledge
Heat stress, climate for those involved in the importation of
Summers, B. A. (2009) Climate change and animal
disease. Veterinary Pathology 46, 1185-1186
‘exotic’ breeds of cattle, sheep and poultry
change and animal or working in areas where excessively
doi: 10.1136/vr.c2817
welfare high temperatures regularly took their
toll on indigenous animals. Those of us
who studied tropical veterinary medicine
I WAS interested to read the short in Britain in the 1960s, or earlier, were
communication by Dey and others (2010), taught this by veterinarians and scientists
which gave prominence to discussing who had not only served, but also lived,
the adverse effect of heat on donkeys in in countries where the adverse effects of
India during a period of very high ambient high temperature on individual animals
temperatures. My pleasure on finding this and humans alike were well recognised.
was enhanced when a paper (Alam and Veterinary graduates and students who
others 2010) appeared in the Journal of the nowadays visit hot countries for short
Commonwealth Veterinary Association describing periods in order to participate in projects
the clinical signs of heat stress in cattle and have not usually received comparable
water buffalo and including an extensive training and preparation. As a corollary,
list of references on the effects of hot important practical knowledge of heat
environments on livestock. stress is now largely invested in local
Over the past two years, various (indigenous) veterinary officers and animal
reports have been published in Veterinary health assistants, as evidenced by the
Record and elsewhere about climate change articles cited at the beginning of this letter.
and the effect it may be having on the Interest in climate change goes back
environment, on biodiversity, on the spread over a century, when many papers on the
of infectious diseases and on the health subject were published in Europe, especially
of animals. A useful summary of current Germany. The subject even formed the
thinking was provided by Summers basis of a lecture to the Linnean Society of
(2009). London during the first year of the Second
Surprisingly little appears in British World War (Simpson 1940). At the present
literature about the effect of high time, the diverse effects of a rise in global
temperatures on the welfare of individual temperature are the subject of much concern
animals. The RSPCA second summer and some concerted international action. In
conference, reported in Veterinary Record on these circumstances, it seems strange that
July 4, 2009 (vol 165, pp 7-8), included some the British veterinary profession, which
useful discussion of the effects of heat stress rightly puts much emphasis on welfare, is
(notably the talk by Elizabeth Kendon); not making its voice heard more widely
however, much of the debate at that meeting, over the adverse influence that rises in
as elsewhere, seemed to concentrate on more environmental temperature may be having
general aspects, such as the expanding range on the wellbeing, production and survival of
of infectious diseases, including bluetongue individual animals.
and African horse sickness. Interestingly, the
tendency to move away from addressing the John E. Cooper, Department of Veterinary
effects of higher temperatures on individual Medicine, University of Cambridge,
animals has been reflected in standard texts Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ES
on tropical veterinary medicine. Thus, while e-mail: ngagi2@[Link]
earlier editions of ‘Handbook on Animal
Diseases in the Tropics’ (see, for example,
BVA 1962) included useful, practically References
Alam, M. R., Gregory, N. G., Uddin,
orientated, information on heat stress, the M. S., Jabbar, M. A., Silva-Fletcher, A.,
fourth, revised, edition of the same volume Kempson, A. G. C. & Saifuddin, A. K. M.
(Sewell and Brocklesby 1990) omitted this (2010) Frequency of heat stress in cattle and water
buffalo at livestock markets in Bangladesh. Journal of the
and only retained the short section on equine Commonwealth Veterinary Association 26, 13-17
anhidrosis. The word ‘heat’ does not even BVA (1962) Handbook on Animal Diseases in the
appear in the index of the 1990 work and the Tropics. British Veterinary Association
Dey, S., Dwivedi, S. K., Malik, P., Panisup,
index citations relating to ‘hyperthermia’, A. S., Tandon, S. N. & Singh, B. K. (2010)
‘fever’ and ‘pyrexia’ concern only infectious Mortality associated with heat stress in donkeys in
diseases (a list of 59) in which a rise of body India. Veterinary Record 166, 143-144
temperature is a clinical feature! Sewell, M. H. H. & Brocklesby, D. W. (1990)
Handbook on Animal Diseases in the Tropics. 4th
Veterinary surgeons who worked edn. Baillière Tindall
in the tropics in the past were trained to Simpson, G. C. (1940) Possible causes of change in

June 5, 2010 | Veterinary Record | 729