Climate Change and Animal Health

Abstract

This benchmark publication assembles information on the current and anticipated effects of climate change on animal health. It empowers educators, managers, practitioners, and researchers by providing evidence, experience, and opinions on what we need to do to prepare for, and cope with, the largest threat ever to have faced animals on this planet. With expert contributors from across the globe, the text equips the reader with information and means to develop sustainable adaptation or mitigation actions. After introducing animal health in a climate change context, chapters look at specific animal health impacts arising from climate change. The book concludes with suggestions on teachable and actionable ideas that could be used to mobilize concepts provided into education or advocacy. This book was written amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in the face of ever-increasing reports of on-the-ground, real-life climate impacts. Large scale wildfire and ocean heat waves killed unprecedented numbers of animals, while droughts in some areas and floods in others displaced thousands of livestock and made food scarce for even more. Climate change is real, and it is here. How we respond will have profound implications for people, biodiversity, welfare, conservation, societies, economies, and ecosystems. Today's veterinary educators are awakening to the need to adapt and train a new generation of animal health professionals who can understand and plan for climate change, and this book is an essential resource. © 2023 Craig Stephen and Colleen Duncan.