The study of the potential impacts of climate change on animal health and welfare is in its infancy and urgently needs to gather momentum. This presentation aims to provide a general overview of the current state of affairs, drawing on available information from a Scottish perspective. There is a now a broad consensus amongst scientists that the global climate is changing. All available predictions would indicate that, over the next decade, the weather in the UK will feature greater extremes of climatic conditions, with a general trend towards drier, warmer summers and milder, wetter winters. These changes will obviously impact on the health and welfare of farmed animals, both directly and indirectly. For example, we may anticipate having to protect animals from heat stress and dehydration or provide adequate shelter in more adverse weather conditions. Similarly, there may be indirect effects on livestock through availability of feed supply or a change in forage available for grazing, for example. However, where a changing climate is likely to have most impact is in the transmission and epidemiology of livestock disease. There has been much publicity surrounding the incursion of “exotic” diseases such as Bluetongue and West Nile virus and the spread of vector-borne disease such as Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. However, endemic diseases have been largely ignored. Endemic infectious organisms likely to be strongly influenced by changes in the weather are the parasitic helminths, the causative agents of such diseases as parasitic gastroenteritis (PGE) and liver fluke disease. The larval stages of these parasites develop and survive at pasture and, in some cases, in an intermediate host for a considerable amount of time before being ingested by a host. If climate change alters the ability of some of these larval stages to over-winter on pasture, or survive arrested within the host, the epidemiology of these parasites may be altered accordingly and unexpected, ‘unseasonal’, clinical disease may be witnessed.

Carbon sequestration is seen by many scientists and politicians to be the answer to the problems of both global warming and future supplies of energy. Two main strategies are being considered. One requires the stripping out of carbon dioxide from the waste gases of power stations using coal as feedstock and storing it underground or under the sea bed. The other approach, which is the subject of this paper, is based on experiences in Amazonia thousands of years ago, in which indigenous tribes “created” soil by enriching it with charcoal and human and animal residues (Glazer 2007). “Terra preta” as it was called has been found to have multiple properties. The carbon derived from the charcoal is not oxidized by soil micro-organisms, hence its capacity to “sequester” carbon; of equal importance are properties ranging from being a source of soil nutrients per se and enhancement of the utilization of nutrients that may be added, especially nitrogen (Lehmann et al. 2006).

Spontaneous stereotypic behaviour is conceptualised as topographically invariant, repetitive, rigid behaviour patterns, typically thought to be an artefact of captivity (Mason and Rushen 2006). In horses, stereotypic behaviours are commonly reported, probably owing to the high numbers of domesticated animals maintained under restrictive conditions (Parker et al., 2008a; Waters et al. 2002). Spontaneous stereotypies displayed by the horse include both oral (e.g., cribbing/windsucking) and locomotor (e.g., weaving and box-walking). There are a variety of extant theories as to what causes these behaviours, ranging from boredom to genetic predisposition and everywhere in-between. Affecting up to 35% of domestic horses in the UK, stereotypies represent a significant challenge for owners and a clear understanding of their aetiology is important in order to move to reduce the incidence. Recent advances in our understanding of the behavioural and neurobiological processes involved in the development and maintenance of drug-induced stereotypies in laboratory animals may provide us with a useful model for a better understanding of the spontaneous equivalent.

Equine laminitis is a painful debilitating condition that seems to be a product of domestication of horses associated with the practice of feeding carbohydrate rich pasture in excess of requirements, particularly in ponies. We have been working on the hypothesis that caecal bacteria, when presented with carbohydrate in large quantities tend to ferment this. Fermentation by gram positive bacteria is associated with a fall in pH of the caecal liquor. As a means of providing themselves with increased intracellular buffering capacity, these bacteria produce amino acid decarboxylase enzymes which convert amino acids present in the caecal fluid into primary amines which can act as intracellular buffers. The reason we thought this might be the case was that foods formed by bacterial fermentation processes (e.g. cheese and wines) have a high content of amines. Primary amines derived from some amino acids have vasoactive properties. In the 1960s it was recognised that human patients taking drugs that inhibit the metabolism of amines (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) could suffer from severe hypertensive crises if they ate cheese or drank red wines with high tyramine content. This so called ‘cheese effect’ is the result of the indirect sympathomimetic effect of tyramine which displaces norepinephrine from sympathetic nerve endings leading to a rise in blood pressure. Monoamine oxidase enzymes present in the epithelial cells lining the gut wall and in liver cells normally protect individuals from suffering these hypertensive crises. We wondered whether amines released from the gut in response to ingestion of excessive amounts of carbohydrate might lead to a similar reaction in ponies whereby dietary amines caused vasoconstriction of the digital vasculature, leading to the prodromal phases of laminitis.

Although globally the demand for animal derived foods is growing rapidly driven by a combination of population growth, urbanisation and rising income, the contribution of milk and red meat to the UK diet has reduced considerably over the last 50 years. The contribution of poultry meat however, has increased enormously. Mainly because of their major contribution to saturated fatty acid (SFA) consumption, ruminant-derived foods have often been considered to be a major contributor to CHD/CVD and other chronic disorders. Given that we are living in an era of increasing risk of chronic disease as a result of increased obesity and an ever ageing population, it is important that risks and benefits associated with different foods are understood and that possible improvements to such foods are made with regard to the cost effectiveness and environmental impact.

A number of major food safety incidents in the 1990’s led to a crisis of confidence in EU consumers. These included the Mad Cow Disease outbreak, starting in the UK in the 1980’s, and the scandals across Europe involving the feeding of dioxins, sludge and pharmaceutical waste to food-producing animals. These incidents had one thing in common – all were connect with animal feed, suggesting this was the weak link in the food chain. In addition, the food industry continued to struggle with the negative publicity of salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter incidents.

Captivity should be the last resort in any attempt to conserve threatened species. However, for many species we are now at this point, particularly when we consider the lower vertebrates such as amphibians. Zoos have the potential to play a leading role in the conservation (as opposed the exploitation) of this often-neglected taxa. However, in order to do this will require two significant mind-shifts within the zoo world. Firstly we need to distinguish between those species which we maintain for exhibition purposes (i.e. large mammals) from those which have an important conservation role (e.g. amphibians) and be willing to discuss this openly with our visiting public. Second we must recognise that while educating children about the natural world is of value, our biggest impact on wildlife conservation will be through training conservation professionals worldwide and building their capacity to conserve their own wildlife.

Extensive systems Extensive agricultural systems are usually presented as a type of agriculture that uses low quantity of inputs per surface unit (land), like fertilizers, feeds, seeds, pesticides, irrigation water and energy. They are frequently associated with low investments (capital) in machinery and/or buildings per surface unit and low land prices. They can also be characterized by labour-extensive systems. European extensive grassland-based systems are mainly located at high latitudes (Scandinavia) and high altitudes (mountain areas), in Mediterranean dry rangelands, in the lowlands of the Eastern part of the Union (recent accession countries), as well as in hills and uplands of the British Isles. Grasslands and rangelands covered 56 million ha (33% AA) in the EU-27 in 2005. This area included about 17.5 million ha of rangelands, in mountain and Mediterranean areas mainly (EUROSTAT, 2008). Extensive grasslands and rangelands cover thus more than 30% of the total grassland and rangeland area in Europe. Forage yields and animal productions per ha are significantly lower in these areas compared with intensive lowland grasslands. For instance an extensive range can produce about 5-6 times less DM/ha than fertilised grasslands. Production costs per kg of product are often significantly higher in extensive systems. Farmers must manage larger areas in these systems for a total income that is regularly lower compared wit smaller intensive farms.

Ruminant production in the UK is largely dependent on grasslands: approximately 52% of UK land is (improved) grassland and rough grazing. Herbage production from improved grassland can be over five times higher than that of indigenous swards (Davies et al., 1984) and these pastures account for the majority of ruminant (meat and milk) production from grassland the UK. They are also amenable to manipulation through the choice of species, variety and mixture of forages sown. Efficiency of production can be influenced at the levels of both the plant and the animal and by the nutrition and genetics of both. This paper examines strategies to increase production efficiency based upon optimising rumen fermentation linked to plant breeding approaches. In this way efficiency can be improved without recourse to diet manipulation with supplements, which is generally impractical at grazing. Although the rumen microbial population allows the ruminant animal to extract energy from otherwise unusable sources (i.e. fibres), the rumen is also the source of greatest inefficiencies in the use of nitrogen and energy. Degraded plant nitrogen that is not captured by the rumen microbes tends to be absorbed as ammonia, much of which is excreted as urea and contributes to ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions. Similarly, methane release from the rumen represents a waste of energy that could otherwise be used for production. Globally, these two processes result in ruminant livestock accounting for approximately a third of the methane emissions (Beauchemin et al., 2008) and half of the nitrous oxide emissions (de Klein and Eckard, 2008) from anthropogenic sources.

The work of the UK Climate Change Commission (UKCCC) in recommending targets and options for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases is focusing attention on what agriculture and land use can contribute to deliver these targets. Although overall the major issue is the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from energy use, agriculture and land use are significant emitters of methane and nitrous oxide. UKCCC has identified three main routes by which emissions can be reduced

• Lifestyle change with less reliance on carbon intensive produce -eg switching from sheep, and beef to pig, poultry and vegetables.

• Changing farm practices – eg to improve use of fertilisers and manures

• Using new technology on farms – eg modifying rumen processes, anaerobic digestion.