Water Buffalo Welfare, Strategies to Improve Health, Behavior, Productivity, and Food Quality and Safety

The following collection provides a comprehensive and updated analysis of the challenges and advancements in the welfare, productivity, and sustainability of water buffalo under human management. The collection addresses critical topics such as adaptation to heat stress in the context of climate change, examining physiological and behavioral responses, and proposing environmental and nutritional management strategies to mitigate adverse effects. Buffalo nutrition is explored in depth, highlighting diet formulations tailored to diverse agroecological conditions and their impact on thermoregulation, productivity, and product quality, including milk and meat.

Special attention is paid to the characterization of the ruminal microbiome in buffalo from various Amazonian ecosystems, recognizing the pivotal role of microbial composition and diversity in fermentation efficiency and resource utilization.

In this reprint, key health issues affecting buffalo are also reviewed, including emerging viral diseases and Degnala disease, a mycotoxicosis linked to contaminated rice straw. Advances in genetic improvement technologies, such as genome editing and artificial intelligence algorithms, are presented as vital tools for the future. Comparative analyses of mammary gland physiology between buffalo and cattle, animal welfare during transport and slaughter, and the nutritional attributes of buffalo products are also examined.