Invited review: Are adaptations present to support dairy cattle productivity in warm climates?

Environmental heat stress, present during warm seasons and warm episodes, severely impairs dairy cattle performance, particularly in warmer climates. It is widely viewed that warm climate breeds (Zebu and Sanga cattle) are adapted to the climate in which they evolved. Such adaptations might be exploited for increasing cattle productivity in warm climates and decrease the effect of warm periods in cooler climates. The literature was reviewed for presence of such adaptations. Evidence is clear for resistance to ticks and tick-transmitted diseases in Zebu and Sanga breeds as well as for a possible development of resistance to ticks in additional breeds. Development of resistance to ticks demands time; hence, it needs to be balanced with potential use of insecticides or vaccination. The presumption of higher sweating rates in Zebu-derived breeds, based upon morphological differences in sweat glands between breeds, has not been substantiated. Relatively few studies have examined hair coat characteristics and their responses to seasonal heat, particularly in temperate climate breeds. Recently, a gene for slick hair coat has been observed that improved heat tolerance when introduced into temperate climate breeds. No solid evidence exists that hair coat in these lines is lighter than in well-fed warm climate-adapted Holsteins. Warm climate breeds and their F1 crosses share as dominant characteristics lower maintenance requirements and milk yields, and limited response to improved feeding and management. These characteristics are not adaptations to a feed-limited environment but are constitutive and useful in serving survival when feed is scarce and seasonal and high temperatures prevail. The negative relationship between milk yield and fertility present in temperate climates breeds also prevails in Zebu cattle. Fertility impairment by warm conditions might be counteracted in advanced farming systems by extra corporeal early embryo culture. In general, adaptations found in warm climate cattle breeds did not increase heat dissipation capacity, but rather diminished climate-induced strain by decreasing milk production. The negative relationship between reproductive efficiency and milk yield, although relatively low, also appears in Zebu cattle. This association, coupled with limited feed intake, acting over millennia, probably created the selection pressure for a low milk production in these breeds.