Thermoregulatory responses in buffaloes during heat stress

There are 194.16 million buffalo in the world today, 97.08% in Asia, 2.07% in Africa mainly in Egypt, 0.71% in Americas and 0.14% in Europe mainly in Italy. India ranks first with (115.4) million buffalo population (FAOSTAT 2012). Livestock are essentially integrated with the agricultural and socio-economic system in India. Buffaloes are mainly reared for their milk, meat and as draught animals. India, being a tropical country the animals are exposed to thermal challenge for prominent part of the year, also the accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the Earth's atmosphere has led to predictions that global surface temperatures will increase by between 1 to 6°C during the 21st century (IPCC, 2007). A 25% loss in animal productivity in developing countries has been estimated due to global warming (Seguin, 2008). Heat stress is a multi-systemic adaptive response that develops when animal's capacity for heat dissipation exceeded by increasing heat load acquired through excessive exposure to high ambient temperatures.