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Thermal Challenges: Heat Stress and Its Effects on Animal Physiology and Management

A Special Issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) belonging to the section "Animal System and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 26 February 2027 | Viewed by 923

Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Animal Sciences, Hungarian University of Agricultural and Life Sciences, 2100 Gödöllő, Hungary
Interests: stress physiology; behavioral physiology; animal welfare; precision livestock farming; heat stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change has brought unprecedented challenges to the livestock production system worldwide, with rising temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events significantly impacting animal welfare and productivity. This Special Issue aims to compile cutting-edge research examining the physiological responses of livestock to heat stress, innovative approaches to mitigate these effects, and identify practical solutions for sustainable animal production in a warming climate.

In this Special Issue, we invite original research papers, reviews, and case studies addressing topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Precision livestock technologies for monitoring physiological parameters;
  • Animals’ physiological responses in different production systems;
  • Novel biomarkers for heat stress assessment;
  • Nutritional interventions to alleviate heat stress effects;
  • Neuroendocrine and metabolic adaptations to heat stress in different livestock species;
  • Impacts on reproductive physiology and fertility;
  • Immunological consequences and disease susceptibility under heat stress conditions;
  • Genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of thermotolerance;

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Levente Kovács
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • livestock
  • heat stress
  • physiological responses
  • health
  • welfare
  • sustainable animal production

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

27 pages, 2747 KB  
Review
Heat Stress Detection in Dairy Cattle Using Intraruminal Bolus Sensors
by Levente Kovács, Áron Gergely Simon, Martin Czirok, Péter Póti and Viktor Jurkovich
Animals 2026, 16(16), 2516; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16162516 - 12 Aug 2026
Viewed by 615
Abstract
Heat stress represents one of the most economically and biologically consequential environmental challenges facing modern dairy production, with projected intensification under ongoing climate change. Intraruminal bolus sensors have emerged as a uniquely capable platform for heat stress surveillance in lactating dairy cows: once [...] Read more.
Heat stress represents one of the most economically and biologically consequential environmental challenges facing modern dairy production, with projected intensification under ongoing climate change. Intraruminal bolus sensors have emerged as a uniquely capable platform for heat stress surveillance in lactating dairy cows: once administered, they provide continuous, lifetime access to reticuloruminal temperature—a reliable indicator of core body thermal status—alongside behavioral parameters, in a configuration entirely shielded from external environmental interference. This review examines the scientific basis and practical capabilities of bolus-based heat stress monitoring and its potential to optimize dairy production systems. We describe the physiological rationale for reticuloruminal temperature as a heat stress indicator, the principal confounding factors including drinking-water effects and diurnal variation, and the evidence base for interpreting temperature signals in the context of breed, parity, milk yield, and the temperature–humidity index. We review controlled studies characterizing the determinants of reticuloruminal temperature across breeds and seasons, and a four-level machine-learning processing architecture for bolus data integration. Individual baseline calibration—rather than fixed population thresholds—is identified as a prerequisite for reliable detection, enabling targeted cooling interventions, improved reproductive management, and enhanced disease surveillance. We further review bolus developments extending sensing to heart-rate monitoring and low-power wide area network communication, and discuss machine-learning methodologies suited to bolus-derived time-series data. Methodological challenges—including drinking-water effects, sensor precision, communication reliability, and the absence of standardized crossbreed validation protocols—are critically appraised, and future research priorities are identified. Full article
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