Climate change is reshaping global livestock production systems and leading to increased research on the topic. However, science still faces the challenge of translating advances in knowledge into practical solutions for the field and public policy. This is one of the main conclusions of a study published in the journal Tropical Animal Health and Production by researchers from the Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture at the University of São Paulo (ESALQ-USP) in Brazil.
The study analyzed 1,694 articles indexed in the Scopus database between 1974 and 2025. The results revealed an annual growth rate of 9.5% in research addressing climate change and animal production. Notably, 35.71% of the publications were the result of collaborations. The study also noted an increase in interdisciplinarity, methodological sophistication, and new agendas focused on sustainability, adaptation, resilience, and animal welfare. There has also been a growing use of digital tools, such as modeling and machine learning.
According to the authors, the long-term impact will depend on the ability to bridge the gap between scientific evidence and implementation through inclusive governance and regionalized solutions.
“After 2015, the discussion became more focused on resilience, sustainability, animal welfare, and One Health. That shift in cultural attitudes represents a change in both research perspectives and societal demands for a better quality of life. That’s when we began to realize that the biggest gap is precisely the one between science and practice when it comes to implementing that process in the field. It isn’t enough to simply develop technology. We have to transform it into evidence-based practices and implementation, which involves public policies and small-scale producers’ access to those new production systems,” Iran José Oliveira da Silva, a professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering at ESALQ-USP and one of the coordinators of the study, explains to Agência FAPESP.
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