article · Veterinary Medicine and Science
Climate change significantly undermines broiler chicken production, particularly across tropical climates where rising daily temperatures, higher humidity, and shifting precipitation patterns create hostile environments. Modern broilers are genetically selected for rapid growth and efficient feed conversion, but extreme weather prevents them from reaching their full production potential. In addition to triggering thermal stress, changing climatic conditions worsen existing operational hurdles by driving up feed costs and restricting access to quality nutrition. These environmental pressures negatively influence bird nutrition, immune response, general health, and vulnerability to disease. To counter these widespread disruptions, synthesised evidence highlights the major constraints of operating poultry systems under hot and humid conditions while identifying diverse approaches developed to mitigate the harmful impacts of extreme weather on bird performance.
Broiler poultry provides an essential and efficient source of animal protein, yet warming climates threaten global meat supply and farming viability. High heat and humidity reduce bird growth, drive up feeding expenses, and raise disease risks. Identifying practical interventions to protect flocks against heat stress helps maintain poultry farm productivity and food security in vulnerable tropical regions.
The findings inform poultry producers, feed manufacturers, and farm equipment designers seeking interventions to alleviate heat stress in tropical environments. Potential applications include climate-adapted feeding regimens and flock management practices to maintain bird growth and immune health. Because this work is a secondary review collating existing mitigation approaches, practical adoption relies on implementing established farming methods or developing targeted nutritional products rather than novel lab discoveries.
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Climate change has emerged as a significant occurrence that adversely affects broiler production, especially in tropical climates. Broiler chickens, bred for rapid growth and high meat production, rely heavily on optimal environmental conditions to achieve their genetic potential. However, climate change disrupts these conditions and poses numerous challenges for broiler production. One of the primary impacts of climate change on broiler production is the decreased ability of birds to attain their genetic potential for faster growth. Broilers are bred to possess specific genetic traits that enable them to grow rapidly and efficiently convert feed into meat. However, in tropical climates affected by climate change, the consequent rise in daily temperatures, increased humidity and altered precipitation patterns create an unfavourable environment for broilers. These conditions impede their growth and development, preventing them from reaching their maximum genetic influence, which is crucial for achieving desirable production outcomes. Furthermore, climate change exacerbates the existing challenges faced by broiler production systems. Higher feed costs impact the industry's economic viability and limit the availability of quality nutrition for the birds, further hampering their growth potential. In addition to feed scarcity, climate change also predisposes broiler chickens to thermal stress. This review collates existing information on climate change and its impact on broiler production, including nutrition, immune function, health and disease susceptibility. It also summarizes the challenges of broiler production under hot and humid climate conditions with different approaches to ameliorating the effects of harsh climatic conditions in poultry.
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DOI: 10.1002/vms3.1416
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