Browsing by Author "Vitali, Andrea"
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Item Open Access Challenges and priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens in the context of climate change(Elsevier, 2016-07-29) Ozkan, S.; Vitali, Andrea; Lacetera, N.; Amon, B.; Bannik, A.; Bartley, D.J.; Blanco-Penedo, I.; de Haas, Y.; Dufrasne, I.; Elliott, J.; Eory, V.; Fox, N. J.; Garnsworthy, P. C.; Gengler, N.; Hammami, H.; Kyriazakis, I.; Leclère, D.; Lessire, F.; Macleod, M.; Robinson, T. P.; Ruete, A.; Sandars, Daniel L.; Shrestha, S.; Stott, A. W.; Twardy, S.; Vanrobays, M. L.; Vosough Ahmadi, B.; Weindl, I.; Wheelhouse, N.; Williams, A. G.; Williams, H. W.; Wilson, A. J.; østergaard, S.; Kipling, Richard P.Climate change has the potential to impair livestock health, with consequences for animal welfare, productivity, greenhouse gas emissions, and human livelihoods and health. Modelling has an important role in assessing the impacts of climate change on livestock systems and the efficacy of potential adaptation strategies, to support decision making for more efficient, resilient and sustainable production. However, a coherent set of challenges and research priorities for modelling livestock health and pathogens under climate change has not previously been available. To identify such challenges and priorities, researchers from across Europe were engaged in a horizon-scanning study, involving workshop and questionnaire based exercises and focussed literature reviews. Eighteen key challenges were identified and grouped into six categories based on subject-specific and capacity building requirements. Across a number of challenges, the need for inventories relating model types to different applications (e.g. the pathogen species, region, scale of focus and purpose to which they can be applied) was identified, in order to identify gaps in capability in relation to the impacts of climate change on animal health. The need for collaboration and learning across disciplines was highlighted in several challenges, e.g. to better understand and model complex ecological interactions between pathogens, vectors, wildlife hosts and livestock in the context of climate change. Collaboration between socio-economic and biophysical disciplines was seen as important for better engagement with stakeholders and for improved modelling of the costs and benefits of poor livestock health. The need for more comprehensive validation of empirical relationships, for harmonising terminology and measurements, and for building capacity for under-researched nations, systems and health problems indicated the importance of joined up approaches across nations. The challenges and priorities identified can help focus the development of modelling capacity and future research structures in this vital field. Well-funded networks capable of managing the long-term development of shared resources are required in order to create a cohesive modelling community equipped to tackle the complex challenges of climate change.Item Open Access Livestock and climate change: impact of livestock on climate and mitigation strategies(Oxford University Press, 2018-11-12) Grossi, Giampiero; Goglio, Pietro; Vitali, Andrea; Williams, Adrian G.Introduction: According to the United Nations (UN, 2017), the world population increased by approximately 1 billion inhabitants during the last 12 years, reaching nearly 7.6 billion in 2017. Although this growth is slower than 10 years ago (1.24% vs. 1.10% per year), with an average increase of 83 million people annually, global population will reach about 8.6 billion in 2030 and 9.8 billion in 2050. Population growth, urbanization, and income rise in developing countries are the main driver of the increased demand for livestock products (UN, 2017). The livestock sector requires a significant amount of natural resources and is responsible for about 14.5% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (7.1 Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents for the year 2005; Gerber et al., 2013). Mitigation strategies aimed at reducing emissions of this sector are needed to limit the environmental burden from food production while ensuring a sufficient supply of food for a growing world population. The objectives of this manuscript are to 1) discuss the main greenhouse gas emissions sources from the livestock sector and 2) summarize the best mitigation strategies.