Quantifying the contribution of livestock health issues to the environmental impact of their production systems

Stephen G. Mackenzie, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; and Ilias Kyriazakis, Queen’s University of Belfast, UK

Chapter synopsis: The focus of this chapter is on the environmental impact consequences of endemic livestock health challenges that lead to deterioration in animal health, and on the potential impacts arising from their mitigations. The first part of the chapter concentrates on the potential of animal health to affect the environmental impact of livestock systems. Subsequently, it reviews the literature to date which has quantified the impact of health challenges for the environmental impacts of livestock systems. The potential of successful health interventions to mitigate negative environmental impacts represents a point of synergy between concerns around environmental sustainability and animal welfare, both of which represent 'hot topics' in the discourse surrounding the livestock industry and its sustainability. The challenges associated with modelling health interventions and their potential to mitigate environmental impacts constitute the last section in the chapter.

DOI: 10.19103/AS.2020.0077.07