This was a field protocol and observational mapping study rather than an experiment measuring the ecological effects of grazing. Its authors focused on an area encompassing two corridors in central Italy: Corridor 1 links the Sirente-Velino Regional Natural Park with the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park, while Corridor 2 connects the latter with the Majella National Park. The corridors support Marsican bears and also provide habitat for mammals including roe deer, red deer, wild boar and porcupine.

To compile the data, the researchers requested 2023 livestock records from municipal offices in the 15 municipalities wholly or partly within the study area. The records included the number of animals assigned to farms using municipal pasture under Italy’s annual or seasonal “fida pascolo” grazing-concession system. This system is governed by provisions dating from 1927 and 1928, while the cadastral framework for land parcels derives from an 1886 law. Municipal documents identified the relevant cadastral sheets and parcels and the livestock numbers associated with each farm, although completeness and detail varied among municipalities.

Farmers were interviewed anonymously to fill gaps in animal-category classifications and records of where pastures were located. On-site visits supplied pasture assignments by cadastral sheet and animal numbers by species and age class. The resulting database recorded the municipality, an anonymised farm code, cadastral sheet, area allocated in hectares, and numbers of cattle older than 24 months, cattle aged 6–24 months, cattle younger than six months, sheep and goats older than 12 months, and horses older than six months. Only aggregate information was published to protect farms’ identities and locations.

For mapping, the team selected cadastral sheets from the Italian national cadastral cartography and combined them with livestock data in QGIS. Where animal numbers were available by farm and parcel, the parcels’ areas were proportionally allocated to the relevant cadastral sheet, under an assumption that animals were distributed evenly within it. For Gagliano Aterno, where the records identified grazed sheets but not animal numbers for each one, the calculation used the municipality’s total livestock divided by its total grazed area. The protocol then associated livestock counts and densities with the mapped sheets.

Grazing pressure was expressed in livestock units, or LSUs, to combine different animal categories. Under European Commission Implementing Regulation 2016/669 conversion factors used by the municipalities, cattle and equines over the specified age thresholds counted as 1 LSU, cattle aged six months to two years as 0.6 LSU, cattle below six months as 0.4 LSU, and sheep and goats as 0.15 LSU. The resulting shapefile contained eight mapped variables: LSU, LSU density, equines, equines density, cattle, cattle density, sheep and goats combined, and their density.

Gagliano Aterno had the highest municipal LSU count, at 461.8, followed by Ortona dei Marsi with 373.2, Anversa degli Abruzzi with 350.7 and Scanno with 295.2. Gagliano Aterno also recorded the most cattle, with 366, compared with 204 in Ortona dei Marsi and 166 in Cocullo. Cattle density was highest in Ortona dei Marsi at 2.03 cattle per hectare of grazed cadastral sheets, followed by Scanno at 0.96. Anversa degli Abruzzi had the largest combined sheep-and-goat count, 1,173 animals, and the highest density, 8.21 individuals per hectare; Scanno ranked third in that category’s density at 5.38. Ortona dei Marsi had both the largest equine population, 117, and the highest equine density, 1.62 per hectare.

The municipal LSU estimates were generally higher than values from two larger-scale studies by Malek and colleagues, although some municipalities showed higher comparison values in one of those datasets. After horses were excluded because the comparison datasets omitted them, the protocol’s municipal values showed a moderate correlation with Malek et al. (2024a), although the result was not statistically significant at the 0.05 threshold (Spearman’s rho 0.47, p=0.08). Correlation with Malek et al. (2024b) was weak (Spearman’s rho 0.14, p=0.02). The authors attributed differences to methodological variation and the use of different LSU coefficients.

Several limitations constrain the maps. They exclude livestock on private pastureland because those data were unavailable, which may cause some underestimation even though private grazing was a small part of the mapped region. The method assigns livestock to cadastral sheets rather than locating individual animals, and its homogeneous-distribution assumption may not reflect unequal forage availability or herds concentrating in particular places. Results also have limited temporal validity because municipal grazing concessions are renewed annually and may change each year. The protocol nevertheless identifies mapped areas for assessing potential overgrazing and the interactions between pasture activity, habitat conditions, wildlife and possible pathogen transmission in bear corridors.

Subject of Research: Standardised mapping of livestock grazing pressure in two Central Apennines ecological corridors

Article Title: Map of livestock density in Central Appenines: a standardised protocol

Article References: Dragonetti, C., Masiello, G., Villa, F., Von Kempis, S. R., Cipollone, M., & Di Marco, M. (2025). Map of livestock density in Central Appenines: a standardised protocol. Nature Conservation, 59, 335-349. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.59.155735

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/natureconservation.59.155735

Keywords: livestock density, grazing pressure, Central Apennines, Marsican brown bear, municipal pastures, livestock units, GIS mapping, biodiversity conservation, livestock, density, Central, Appenines

The authors followed PRISMA-ScR guidance and screened electronic databases and grey literature. They included 24 peer-reviewed primary articles examining human, livestock, wildlife and vector populations. Serosurveys in domestic livestock reported overall seroprevalence ranging from 3.3% to 33.3% across regions and species, with most study estimates clustering between 5% and 30%. Higher values were reported in northern pastoral regions characterized by transhumance, wetlands and cross-border animal movement.

Human seroprevalence was consistently lower than 20% and was largely confined to occupationally exposed groups. The review’s authors interpret this pattern as suggesting that human infections may be under-recognized because of non-specific clinical presentation and limited routine diagnostics. Entomological evidence implicated mosquitoes, predominantly Culex species, as well as biting midges in the genus Culicoides. The review also identified evidence of wildlife exposure and concluded that these findings support a complex, ecologically resilient transmission system capable of sustaining year-round circulation independently of extreme climatic events.

The abstract identifies diagnostic invisibility, fragmented surveillance and weak integration across human, animal and environmental health as major constraints on characterizing Rift Valley fever in Nigeria. Documented control interventions were also described as scarce. The review notes advances in molecular diagnostics, participatory epidemiology and integrated One Health responses in other African countries, but the abstract does not report the effectiveness of such measures in Nigeria. Because this is a synthesis of varied primary studies rather than a single longitudinal analysis, the reported evidence supports an interpretation of sustained inter-epidemic circulation without providing a quantitative estimate of national incidence. The review concludes that the burden of Rift Valley fever is underestimated and calls for integrated, multisectoral surveillance and proactive control strategies.

Subject of Research: Scoping review of Rift Valley fever epidemiology and inter-epidemic transmission in Nigeria

Article Title: Evidence of inter-epidemic transmission of Rift Valley Fever virus circulation in Nigeria: a scoping review

Article References: Oyekan, O. A., Igah, O. E., Bakam, J. D., Ogunmolawa, O. R., Wungak, Y. S., Oyekan, O. D., Ehizibolo, D. O., Adedeji, A. J., Ularamu, H. G., & Meseko, C. A. (2026). Evidence of inter-epidemic transmission of Rift Valley Fever virus circulation in Nigeria: a scoping review. BMC Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-026-29876-8

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12889-026-29876-8

Keywords: Rift Valley fever, Nigeria, scoping review, inter-epidemic transmission, zoonosis, seroprevalence, livestock, mosquito vectors, One Health, surveillance, Evidence, inter-epidemic

The scale of the blind spot is staggering. Livestock collectively dwarf all wild mammals in biomass, making them dominant ecological actors that shape land use, biogeochemical cycles and disease dynamics on a planetary scale. The sector is a leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, a primary driver of deforestation for pasture and feed crops, and a major contributor to nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that creates vast hypoxic dead zones in coastal ecosystems. Yet each of these impacts is typically monitored by a different agency using different methodologies. Agricultural ministries track livestock numbers and feed production, environmental agencies monitor water quality and deforestation rates, and climate scientists model greenhouse gas fluxes. While each dataset is valuable in isolation, their separation prevents a comprehensive, spatially explicit understanding of the entire cause-and-effect chain, making it difficult to correlate a regional increase in cattle density with downstream water quality degradation or a localised loss of forest-dependent species.

One of the most urgent One Health challenges obscured by these silos is antimicrobial resistance, a global health crisis driven by the overuse of antibiotics in both human medicine and agriculture. The livestock sector is a significant consumer of antimicrobials, exerting powerful selective pressure for the evolution of resistant bacteria. Effectively combatting AMR requires an integrated data ecosystem that links agricultural data on antibiotic sales, environmental data on resistant bacteria in soil and water, and public health data on resistant infections in humans. Currently, these datasets are almost always managed by different agencies with no standardised way to connect them, making it incredibly difficult to trace the pathways of resistance from farms to the environment and ultimately to human clinics.

The proposed solution avoids the immense technical and political challenges of creating a centralised data repository. Instead, the paper advocates for a federated data network, a model that respects the sovereignty of existing data systems while enabling powerful, integrated analysis. Unlike systems that ultimately cache data centrally for performance, this model adheres to the strict definition of federation: data remains entirely with its original custodian. Making such a truly federated network a reality requires overcoming significant interoperability hurdles, which can be achieved through two key technical components: a standardised API gateway that queries distributed databases in parallel to minimise latency, and an AI-driven harmonisation engine that dynamically maps terminologies in real-time, functioning as an intelligent intermediary that translates a single user query into the specific dialects of independent databases.

The technical core of the federated network would be the API gateway. An API is a set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate, and the gateway acts as a universal translator and traffic controller. For instance, a researcher might submit a query asking for all records of wild bird species from GBIF and all reported outbreaks of H5N1 avian influenza in poultry farms within a 50 kilometre radius of those sightings. The gateway receives this request, knows how to communicate with the GBIF API to retrieve the bird data and with a veterinary health agency’s API to retrieve the outbreak data, dispatches these requests simultaneously, gathers the disparate results and presents them back to the researcher in a single, unified format.

Artificial intelligence serves as the engine that makes this integration meaningful. The historical barriers to combining heterogeneous data, including disparate formats, inconsistent terminologies and different spatial resolutions, would no longer be insurmountable. Natural Language Processing models can be trained to extract structured information such as disease, location and species from unstructured veterinary field reports. Computer vision algorithms can analyse satellite imagery to automatically classify land use, identifying pasture expansion in biodiversity hotspots. Machine-learning models can learn to align datasets with different temporal or spatial scales, creating a cohesive analytical product from often messy, real-world inputs. The institutional will, not technical feasibility, would now be the primary barrier.

The feasibility of automating data integration at this scale is supported by recent breakthroughs in applying Large Language Models to structured database management. LLMs have evolved beyond text generation to master table processing tasks, including column type annotation and entity resolution. Foundation models can autonomously wrangle messy data, performing complex cleaning operations that previously required custom scripts. Frameworks like StructGPT allow models to reason directly over heterogeneous interfaces, while specific applications in semantic typing prove that AI can accurately map local database schemas to global standards without manual intervention. By leveraging these proven capabilities, the proposed network transforms data federation from a labour-intensive manual task into an automated, scalable pipeline.

The integration of livestock, biodiversity and public health data, powered by AI, does not just enable better analysis of past events; it opens the door to a new paradigm of predictive environmental science and public health management. One of the most promising applications is the development of dynamic risk maps for zoonotic disease spillover. Instead of reacting to an outbreak after it has occurred, an integrated system could continuously pull data on livestock density, deforestation rates from satellite imagery, wildlife distribution from GBIF and other sources, and climate variables. A machine-learning model could then analyse these real-time data streams to identify and flag geographic hotspots where the probability of a pathogen spilling over from wildlife to livestock and potentially to humans is dangerously high, allowing public health and veterinary authorities to target surveillance and intervention efforts with unprecedented precision.

This approach could also revolutionise sustainable agriculture policy. Rather than applying uniform regulations, policy-makers could use integrated data to model the precise ecological impact of different agricultural practices at the farm, landscape, regional and national scales. For example, a model could predict how a proposed expansion of a specific type of grazing system would affect local water quality, soil carbon sequestration and the habitat of an endangered bird species. This would enable the design of evidence-based, spatially explicit policies that optimise food production while minimising environmental harm.

Ultimately, the goal is to create a digital twin of our agro-ecological systems, a dynamic, data-driven model that reflects the complex interactions between human activities and the natural world. Such a system would provide the predictive power needed to navigate the challenges of the Anthropocene, allowing us to anticipate and mitigate problems before they become crises. The complex environmental and public health challenges of the Anthropocene cannot be solved with fragmented data. A true One Health approach requires an integrated view of the world, one that treats a farm, a forest and a city not as separate entities but as interconnected components of a single socio-ecological system. The data to build this integrated view already exist, locked in institutional silos. A federated data network powered by modern AI offers a pragmatic and powerful way to break down these silos, particularly at the critical interface of livestock production and environmental health, representing a necessary paradigm shift towards the collaborative data infrastructure needed for a sustainable future.

Subject of Research: AI-driven federated data network for integrating livestock and biodiversity data

Article Title: Connecting the herd and the habitat: A plea for an AI-driven framework for integrating livestock and biodiversity data

Article References: Doi, H. (2026). Connecting the herd and the habitat: A plea for an AI-driven framework for integrating livestock and biodiversity data. One Ecosystem, 11, Article e174196. https://doi.org/10.3897/oneeco.11.e174196

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/oneeco.11.e174196

Keywords: livestock, biodiversity, One Health, antimicrobial resistance, federated data network, AI, zoonotic disease, GBIF, digital twin, sustainable agriculture, Connecting, herd

The research team deployed a dual-locus DNA metabarcoding approach, amplifying two chloroplast gene regions, trnL(UAA) and rbcL, from faecal DNA collected at Welverdiend, a rural communal rangeland village in the Lowveld Bioregion, and at the Syferkuil Experimental Farm of the University of Limpopo in the Central Bushveld Bioregion. Samples were taken in October, directly before the first rains of the new season, when forage from the grass layer is particularly scarce. Approximately 10 grams of fresh faecal material was collected after defecation from each animal without disturbing them, and DNA was isolated using a plant DNA extraction kit. The two barcodes were then amplified and sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq platform, generating millions of sequences that were filtered, curated and matched against custom, study-area-specific plant DNA reference libraries built specifically for these savanna sites.

The choice of barcodes matters enormously in plant metabarcoding. Unlike animals, which have the near-universal COI barcode, plants possess no single marker that works equally well across all taxa. The rbcL region offers highly universal primers and reliable family-level identification, while trnL yields small DNA fragments suited to the degraded, low-copy-number DNA found in faeces. Neither locus has particularly high species-level discrimination, so the researchers evaluated diets to genus level. Crucially, the two markers proved complementary: trnL exhibited higher diversity in family and genus identification at both sites, uniquely recovering families such as Apocynaceae, Asteraceae and Euphorbiaceae, while rbcL exclusively identified Combretaceae and Annonaceae. Only by combining both loci could the team capture a comprehensive account of the cattle diets.

The results revealed a striking seasonal shift in foraging behaviour. At Welverdiend, where cattle forage on communal rangelands, the trnL marker showed Malvaceae — a family dominated by forbs and non-woody shrubs — as the most frequently ingested plant family, with a frequency of occurrence of 92 percent. Ebenaceae, representing woody taxa such as Euclea, and Poaceae, the grasses, followed closely at 84 percent each. Key forb genera in the Welverdiend diets included Malvastrum, Asparagus and Ipomoea, while woody taxa from Fabaceae, Combretaceae, Ebenaceae and Malvaceae — including genera such as Albizia, Combretum, Euclea and Vachellia — made substantial contributions. Grasses such as Setaria and Eragrostis were present but did not dominate individual diets.

At Syferkuil, where rotational grazing is practised on open thorn bush savanna, a different pattern emerged. Grasses dominated both marker datasets, with Poaceae showing a frequency of occurrence of 96 percent in the trnL dataset and 88 percent in the rbcL dataset. Setaria was the most common genus at 88 percent, followed by the woody Vachellia at 58 percent. Yet even here, forbs were actively foraged: Pollichia and Indigofera each recorded a 25 percent frequency of occurrence, and the succulent shrub Adenium appeared in half of the sampled individuals. The forb family Caryophyllaceae emerged as one of the most frequently utilised families in the trnL dataset, and in one sample it was the only family detected.

Phylogenetic and diversity analyses reinforced the superiority of the dual-locus strategy. The sum of branch lengths — a measure of phylogenetic distance among detected food items — was higher for trnL than rbcL at both sites, and Shannon index calculations showed the highest diversity of consumed plants at Syferkuil, especially for trnL. Plant species richness differed significantly between bioregions and markers. The researchers note that the differing success of the two barcodes is partly explained by the completeness of the reference libraries: the Combretaceae family, for instance, was represented by 12 unique species in the combined reference libraries, of which only three were barcoded with trnL, while rbcL covered all 12 — explaining why trnL systematically missed this family.

The study also exposed gaps in existing plant DNA reference databases for South African savannas. A substantial number of sequence variants remained unassigned after comparison with the custom libraries and could not be matched to any plant species in NCBI’s non-redundant nucleotide database, indicating the presence of unknown or poorly characterised plant species in the region. The rbcL reference library consisted of 1,238 sequences representing 318 genera and 562 species, while the trnL library held 921 sequences representing 270 genera and 461 species. The authors argue that expanded, multi-barcode reference records from South African savannas are needed not only to improve dietary reconstructions but to support the wider field of plant metabarcoding in the region.

The ecological implications extend beyond livestock nutrition. African savannas cover almost half the continent, and the replacement of functionally diverse native herbivore communities by single-species livestock has substantially altered savanna vegetation structure. Traditional rangeland management has focused on grass biomass productivity, with limited recognition of the role of forbs. Yet previous studies of bison showed that under nutritional pressure these grazers increased their intake of shrubs and forbs to access higher protein content — a pattern the new cattle data now confirm for African livestock. With drought events projected to increase in frequency and intensity, understanding alternative indigenous forage items is key to future ecosystem management in dryland rangelands.

The researchers caution that the method has inherent limitations. PCR bias may selectively amplify certain taxa, leading to over- or underrepresentation of specific plants, and faecal samples represent a snapshot of what an individual consumed immediately before sampling rather than long-term dietary habits. They recommend incorporating multiple sampling points over time and integrating dietary observations or tracking methods alongside genetic analyses for a more holistic understanding of foraging behaviour.

Nevertheless, the findings carry a clear message for rangeland managers facing a drier future: conserving the diversity of not only grasses but also shrubs and forbs in grazing areas supports the flexible foraging strategies cattle need to survive periods of scarcity. The study underscores that cattle possess a remarkable dietary adaptability, shifting from grass-based forage to higher inclusions of forbs and woody taxa during the dry season to maintain nutritional balance despite changing environmental conditions. Recognising these shifts, the authors argue, can guide adaptive management practices — from rotational grazing to supplemental feeding — that ensure the sustainable use of semi-arid landscapes while sustaining livestock productivity in communities that depend on it.

Subject of Research: A DNA metabarcoding study of cattle dung from two South African savanna sites reveals that livestock shift from grass-based diets to forbs and woody taxa during the dry season, highlighting the hidden dietary importance of small flowering herbs and the value of a dual-locus trnL and rbcL approach with site-specific reference libraries.

Article Title: Application of a dual-locus metabarcoding approach for a more comprehensive account of cattle dietary items in a semi-arid African savanna with special reference to forbs

Article References: Botha, D., Barnard, S., Du Plessis, M., Allam, M., Behn, K., Ismail, A., Linstädter, A., Mokoka, M. V., Mnisi, Z. T. H., & Siebert, F. (2024). Application of a dual-locus metabarcoding approach for a more comprehensive account of cattle dietary items in a semi-arid African savanna with special reference to forbs. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics, 8, Article e127959. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.8.127959

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/mbmg.8.127959

Keywords: DNA metabarcoding, cattle diets, forbs, semi-arid savanna, South Africa, drought, rangeland management, trnL, rbcL, livestock, Application, dual-locus

The central problem the team set out to solve is deceptively simple: ranches are not uniform. Soil types, slopes, drainage, and vegetation vary dramatically across a single property, and each patch responds differently to grazing, fire, flooding, or invasive species. Yet most existing assessment frameworks treat a ranch as a single unit, requiring one sampling site per 500 hectares regardless of how heterogeneous the landscape is. That standard, embedded in Argentina’s current guidelines for Manejo de Bosques con Ganadería Integrada (MBGI), the national framework for forest management with integrated livestock, has proven difficult to apply, particularly on smaller properties where the sampling density is too coarse to capture real ecological variation.

The new method begins in orbit. Using remote sensing imagery, the researchers delineated what ecologists call Ecological Sites: landscape units that share similar soil, topography, hydrology, climate, and potential vegetation, and are therefore expected to respond similarly to disturbances and management. At the Entre Ríos ranch, El Carayá, the team combined topographic and vegetation data in a geographic information system, drawing on earlier soil maps and vegetation surveys. At the two Patagonian ranches, Tres Lagos and El Jabalí, they used an open-access viewer built in Google Earth Engine that applies a random forest model to layers of mean annual precipitation and temperature, altitude, slope, aspect, meadow probabilities, and distance to rivers, alongside polygons from the most recent classification of native forests for Neuquén, Río Negro, and Chubut.

The classification worked. Six Ecological Sites emerged at El Carayá, eight at Tres Lagos, and four at El Jabalí. At El Carayá, the dominant site was a xerophytic forest of ñandubay (Neltuma affinis) and espinillo (Vachellia caven) covering 62 percent of the 12,450-hectare property, with hygrophilous forests along streams and lowlands accounting for another 28 percent. At Tres Lagos, a 22,224-hectare glaciofluvial valley between two lakes, herbaceous and subshrub communities dominated (36.8 percent), followed by ñire (Nothofagus antarctica) forests (24.6 percent) and Andean cypress (Austrocedrus chilensis) forests (17.3 percent). At the small 82-hectare El Jabalí ranch, wetlands covered 43.4 percent of the area, with Andean cypress, ñire, and mixed forests making up the remainder.

Once the sites were mapped, the team moved to the ground. They overlaid a regular grid of sampling points on each ranch, spacing points at least 250 meters apart and adjusting density to the property’s size and vegetation diversity. At each point they established circular plots of 20 to 25 meters in diameter and filled out a survey form recording qualitative and quantitative indicators of forest condition: herbaceous cover as a proxy for forage availability, indicator species, canopy cover, tree density and height, native tree regeneration, soil erosion assessed through physical crusts and litter cover, shrub encroachment, and signs of disturbance such as fire, flooding, and browsing. They also recorded the presence of exotic wildlife, including European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), European hare (Lepus europaeus), red deer (Cervus elaphus), and wild boar (Sus scrofa), estimating use intensity from footprints, feces, and direct observations.

In total, the researchers surveyed 92 plots at El Carayá, 227 at Tres Lagos, and 63 at El Jabalí, allocated proportionally across the Ecological Sites. The field data revealed telling contrasts. At El Carayá, soil hydric erosion was absent from 89 percent of plots and fire from 94 percent, but signs of overgrazing appeared in 70 percent of plots. At Tres Lagos, deer presence was recorded in 89 percent of plots, rabbit signs in 67 percent, and browsing evidence in 78 percent, while invasive herbaceous and shrub species were largely absent. At El Jabalí, the picture was more concerning: rosehip (Rosa eglanteria) appeared in 87 percent of plots, blackberry (Rubus ulmifolius) in 76 percent, shrub encroachment was moderate to high in 73 percent, and browsing signs were recorded in 65 percent of plots.

The indicators were then distilled into an Environmental Health Index (EHI). Variables were standardized using min-max normalization, transforming each indicator to a common scale between 0 and 1, where 1 represents the optimal or desired condition. Variables where absence indicated good condition, such as the absence of invasive species, were inverted so the summary index accurately reflected environmental significance. The researchers summed 23 variables at El Carayá and 24 at the Patagonian ranches, producing a gradient from worst (0) to best (1) at each sampling plot. The plots were grouped into three indicator categories, Soil, Vegetation, and Threats or Degradation processes, to allow a straightforward relationship between each recorded indicator and the corresponding ecosystem component.

To turn scattered plot values into continuous maps, the team applied ordinary kriging, a geostatistical interpolation method that accounts for the spatial correlation of observations. They randomly divided the sampling points into 70 percent for model calibration and 30 percent for independent validation, then compared five semi-variogram models: stable, circular, spherical, exponential, and Gaussian. The circular model performed best for El Carayá and Tres Lagos, the exponential model for El Jabalí. Cross-validation statistics showed mean squared errors close to zero for all three ranches, 0.027 for El Carayá, 0.046 for Tres Lagos, and 0.049 for El Jabalí, with corresponding root mean squared errors of 0.167, 0.214, and 0.222. The final EHI maps were generated at 10-meter resolution, fine enough to capture landscape detail while maintaining analytical integrity.

The mapped results showed that most land units across the three ranches exhibited intermediate to high environmental health. At El Carayá, average EHI values exceeded 0.50 across all sites, with 95 percent of the highland xerophytic forest ranging from 0.44 to 0.67, and the hygrophilous forest in streams showing the highest proportion of high values, with 90 percent of its area between 0.44 and 0.77. Less degraded forests clustered in the west and central-eastern regions, while degraded patches concentrated in the northeast and southwest. At Tres Lagos, all sites averaged between 0.49 and 0.55, with 88 percent of the ñire forest between 0.43 and 0.57. El Jabalí told a different story: all sites averaged below 0.45, with 48 percent of the coihue forest and 54 percent of the ñire forest falling between 0.16 and 0.32, the lowest values recorded in the study.

The researchers attribute El Jabalí’s poor showing to the pressures typical of small-scale ranching, where high stocking rates and visible overgrazing reflect the combined weight of livestock and forestry practices on limited land. More broadly, the predominance of intermediate EHI values across the ranches suggests a degree of resilience in these ecosystems, likely linked to the resprouting and regeneration capacity of native vegetation, despite a long history of grazing, forestry, and fire in the Espinal and Patagonian ecoregions. The team notes that the method has limitations: the Patagonian Ecological Site viewer is still under development, meadow classifications rely on a country-level probability map that may require field validation, and rapid assessment by design trades depth for speed. Still, the approach proved accurate across ranch sizes from under 100 to over 12,000 hectares, and the researchers argue it could scale up to landscape and regional levels, helping bridge the persistent mismatch between field-based ecological data and remote sensing. By pinpointing exactly where degradation is occurring within each ranch, the tool allows managers to direct scarce sampling effort and adaptive interventions to the patches that need them most, a capability the researchers say is essential as land-use pressures continue to rise on forested production systems worldwide.

Subject of Research: Environmental spatial assessment at ranch scale: a tool for optimizing livestock management in Argentine forests

Article Title: Environmental spatial assessment at ranch scale: a tool for optimizing livestock management in Argentine forests

Article References: Varela, S. A., Calamari, N. C., Trinco, F. D., Diez, J. P., Weigandt, M., Barzán, F. R., Lezana, L., Eclesia, R. P., López, D. R., Coria, R. D., Peri, P. L., Umaña, F. J., Raffo, F., Gazzotti, J. I., de la Peña, C., Wilson, M., Gabioud, E., Hernández, H., & Canavelli, S. B. (2025). Environmental spatial assessment at ranch scale: a tool for optimizing livestock management in Argentine forests. Vegetation Classification and Survey, 6, 163-179. https://doi.org/10.3897/vcs.141917

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/VCS.141917

Keywords: Environmental, spatial, assessment, ranch, scale, tool, optimizing, livestock, management, Argentine, forests, scientific research

Pastoralism is a livelihood practiced by more than 200 million people worldwide, and in East Africa’s drylands pastoralists manage most of the livestock while making significant contributions to national economies and ecosystem regulation. Yet these communities remain politically and economically marginalized, with markedly poorer health and development outcomes than sedentary populations. Turkana County, spanning 77,000 square kilometers, is home to roughly 1.26 million people, the majority of whom practice pastoralism. The county’s livestock herds are vast and diverse, including an estimated 2.8 million cattle, 6.7 million sheep, 6.9 million goats, nearly one million camels, 600,000 donkeys, and about 160,000 Indigenous poultry. Health indicators are grim: the under-five mortality rate stands at 65 per 1,000 live births, infant mortality at 39 per 1,000, and global acute malnutrition has reached emergency levels of 34.8 percent.

One Health has gained prominence as an approach capable of addressing the intensifying socioecological risks pastoralists face, from climate change and infectious disease outbreaks to chronic food insecurity and armed conflict. However, existing gendered One Health research in pastoral settings has narrowly focused on zoonotic disease, leaving a critical gap in understanding how pastoralist men and women themselves prioritize and connect the components of health in their daily lives. To address this, the research team employed a mixed-methods design that combined participatory fuzzy cognitive mapping with grounded theory qualitative analysis, conducting 15 small-group mapping sessions across one village and five mobile kraals spanning three subcounties, deliberately targeting transboundary communities along the borders with South Sudan and Uganda.

Fuzzy cognitive mapping is a participatory technique in which community members identify concepts, or nodes, and draw signed, weighted connections between them to represent how strongly one factor influences another. Facilitators guided participants to identify components and relationships among people, livestock, and the environment, with a focus on health-related processes. Hand-drawn maps were transcribed into the Mental Modeler software for standardization, then treated with fuzzy transitive closure, a mathematical procedure that identifies indirect relationships between components, before being aggregated into gendered maps using the FCMapper package in R. Network metrics, including component counts, connection density, and standardized degree centrality calculated as z-scores, allowed the team to compare the relative importance of shared concepts across men’s and women’s maps while controlling for differences in map size and structure.

The results were revealing. The aggregated women’s cognitive map contained 66 components and 515 connections, with an average of 7.8 connections per component, while the men’s map contained 55 components and 410 connections, averaging 7.5 connections per component. Women’s larger maps with more connections underscore a more integrated systems perspective rooted in daily labor and care across household, livestock management, and environmental domains. Remarkably, men and women shared the same top ten most central components: human health, livestock health, nutrition, animal source foods, veterinary services, health services, foodstuffs, pasture resources, income, and water resources. Yet within these shared priorities, women placed greater emphasis on animal source foods, veterinary services, and foodstuffs, while men prioritized income, water resources, and health services.

Grounded theory analysis of the mapping transcripts exposed the embodied experiences behind these structural differences. Women described how their daily tasks, including collecting water, caring for children and young livestock, securing food, and gathering firewood, were physically demanding and exhausting, with consequences for their own health. One woman explained, “We truly get worked out with the amount of work we do. We carry water cans on the head as we carry the baby on the back, together with the daily routine chores in the homestead that internally affects our health and causes severe pain and aches in the whole body.” During droughts, women reported having to travel farther for everything because resources dried up, and migration for livestock access added labor burdens including building huts, constructing livestock enclosures, and digging shallow wells in each new location.

Men, by contrast, framed the same environmental conditions in relation to herd management rather than their own labor and health. They described water scarcity as a fundamental constraint to livestock, explaining how reduced rainfall forces herds together as water and pasture dry up, increasing livestock density, grazing pressure, and disease transmission risks. Components found only in the men’s map, including livestock density, forage quality, and soil minerals, further reflect their focus on herd health as a primary outcome. Men also articulated a broader set of benefits tied to livestock that extended beyond nutrition to income generation, bride wealth, and school fees, and they emphasized the economic implications of livestock disease, noting that emaciated animals fetch lower market prices or attract no buyers at all.

Veterinary service access revealed another stark gendered divide. Women described the physical burden of transporting sick animals for treatment, often traveling long distances to the nearest agrovet when local infrastructure was non-functional. Despite these constraints, women expressed a strong commitment to their animals’ wellbeing, with one group declaring, “We are ready to buy veterinary drugs. We love our livestock.” Men, in contrast, focused on tradeoffs between private and government services and the role of community animal disease reporters, highlighting limitations related to mobility during dry season migration. Insecurity, primarily armed inter-ethnic conflict over livestock, water, and pasture, compounded these challenges: women experienced it as restricting access to water points and wild fruits and as the loss of donkeys essential for domestic transport, while men framed it as a danger to livestock mobility and resource governance, sometimes engaging in communal fights to access pasture.

Perhaps the most consequential finding concerns knowledge and power. Women demonstrated extensive knowledge of livestock diseases encountered through daily caregiving, yet they showed less awareness of zoonotic diseases than men. The researchers attribute this gap not to capacity but to structural exclusion: women are barred from formal and customary governance spaces, including male-dominated institutions such as the Tree of Men, and face social norms requiring men’s permission to interact with service providers. In a companion study, women frontline animal and human health workers demonstrated in-depth knowledge of zoonotic diseases and prevention methods, supporting that institutional access and training, not innate ability, explains the disparity. The authors frame this as a form of epistemic oppression, in which marginalized groups’ knowledge is systematically devalued regardless of its relevance or quality.

The study argues that care-based One Health represents a paradigm shift capable of expanding the framework beyond its biomedical and surveillance focus. Rather than targeting only disease systems, care-based One Health would address the everyday relational and material conditions that sustain health across people, animals, and environments, including women’s own physical health as a direct consequence of caregiving labor, a dimension largely absent from current One Health frameworks. In practice, this would mean reducing the physical burden of water collection, supporting veterinary and health service access as part of household caregiving responsibilities, mitigating the labor and safety challenges that accompany drought and migration, and prioritizing donkey welfare to simultaneously reduce women’s burdens and improve multispecies wellbeing. Men’s governance and risk perspective complements women’s care-based framing by articulating key socioecological relationships across conflict, livestock mobility, and service delivery. Excluding either perspective, the authors conclude, would produce an incomplete understanding of how the One Health system functions, making gender not merely an equity concern but a fundamental analytical entry point for more effective and equitable One Health policy and practice in pastoral drylands.

Subject of Research: One Health

Article Title: “We love our livestock”: relational care-based One Health in pastoral drylands

Article References: Griffith, E. F., Opondoh, A., Kaluwa, C., Nakadio, E. L., Rotich, K., Kipkemoi, J. R., Levin, J., Mutua, J., & Amuguni, J. H. (2026). “We love our livestock”: relational care-based One Health in pastoral drylands. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 16, Article 16200. https://doi.org/10.3389/past.2026.16200

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/past.2026.16200

Keywords: One Health, pastoralism, gender, Turkana, Kenya, fuzzy cognitive mapping, care-based epistemology, drylands, love, livestock, relational, care-based

The research, published in Veterinary Medicine and Science, focused on the Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster), a solitary and endangered species listed on Appendix I of CITES and classified as Endangered by the IUCN. Nepal holds an estimated 10,000 square kilometers of potential musk deer habitat across multiple protected areas, but populations face pressure from habitat degradation, poaching for musk pods, livestock overgrazing, and disease. Gastrointestinal diseases are particularly common in musk deer and often lead to high mortality; roughly 35 percent of deaths in captive settings have been attributed to coccidian protozoan parasites that damage the intestinal epithelium and predispose animals to fatal secondary bacterial infections.

To assess parasite dynamics in a wild population, researchers conducted a cross-sectional, comparative study across two distinct habitat types in Lapchi Valley, which sits at elevations between 2,600 and 4,950 meters and is bordered by China on three sides. The valley is home to 39 Sherpa households who practice semi-nomadic transhumance, moving chauri and horses seasonally to high-altitude pastures. The team defined four host groups: musk deer in natural habitats with minimal livestock activity (MDN), musk deer in livestock-influenced areas (MDL), horses, and chauri. The MDN site, at an average elevation of 3,880 meters, is separated from the MDL site by the glacier-fed Lapchekhun River and rugged terrain that limits livestock access, while the MDL site comprises subalpine mixed-conifer forest and alpine pastures heavily used by agro-pastoralists, with active chauri sheds and trails leading to Buddhist pilgrimage caves.

Between the two sites, researchers systematically collected 97 fresh fecal samples—67 from musk deer (32 from livestock-influenced areas and 35 from natural habitats) and 30 from livestock (15 chauri and 15 horses)—using belt transects with sampling points placed at 300 to 400 meter intervals to minimize pseudo-replication. Samples were preserved in 2.5 percent potassium dichromate solution and analyzed at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu using saline wet mounts with Lugol’s iodine staining, supplemented by Stoll’s flotation and modified sedimentation concentration techniques to improve detection of low-abundance eggs and oocysts. Parasites were identified to genus level based on morphological keys, with digital microscopy used to measure parasitic structures for confirmation.

The results revealed a striking parasite burden. Of the 97 samples examined, 92 (94.8 percent) were positive for one or more gastrointestinal parasites. Twelve parasite taxa were identified across three host types: two protozoans (Eimeria sp. and Entamoeba sp.), eight nematodes (ascarid eggs, Bunostomum sp., Capillaria sp., Dictyocaulus sp., Muellerius capillaris, Oxyuris sp., Strongylida larvae, and Trichostrongylus sp.), one cestode (Moniezia sp.), and one trematode (Paramphistomum sp.). Among musk deer, 92.5 percent of pellet samples were infected, with nematodes the most prevalent group. The lungworm Muellerius capillaris dominated, detected in 85.1 percent of musk deer samples—consistent with previous reports of this parasite in wild and domestic small ruminants, including 100 percent prevalence documented in bighorn sheep in Montana.

The high prevalence of M. capillaris is likely explained by its complex life cycle. The parasite uses terrestrial molluscs as intermediate hosts, and first-stage larvae can survive for months within fecal pellets while infective third-stage larvae persist for the lifetime of the mollusc, ensuring year-round transmission. By contrast, Dictyocaulus sp. showed a prevalence of only 8.9 percent in musk deer, likely because its free-living larvae depend heavily on favorable humidity and temperature conditions for survival and development. Ascarid egg prevalence in livestock was roughly double that in musk deer, and the researchers note that the robust outer shell of ascarid eggs allows them to remain viable in the environment for up to 15 years, potentially causing diarrhoea, malnutrition, and intestinal obstruction in infected hosts.

Parasite sharing between wild and domestic hosts emerged as a central finding. One protozoan (Eimeria sp.) and two nematodes (ascarid eggs and Strongylida larvae) infected all three host species, while Entamoeba sp., Bunostomum sp., Capillaria sp., and Muellerius capillaris occurred exclusively in musk deer. Dictyocaulus sp. infected both musk deer and horses, Moniezia sp. and Paramphistomum sp. infected only musk deer and chauri, and Trichostrongylus sp. infected both chauri and horses. Oxyuris sp. was found only in horses. Strongylida larvae dominated livestock infections overall, with a prevalence of 56.7 percent—higher in horses (66.7 percent) than in chauri (46.7 percent). Notably, Moniezia sp. was detected only in musk deer from livestock-influenced areas, suggesting potential interspecies infection.

When the researchers compared musk deer from the two habitat types, overall parasite prevalence was remarkably similar: 93.7 percent in livestock-influenced areas versus 91.4 percent in natural habitats. However, protozoan infections were higher in the livestock-influenced areas (25.0 percent) than in natural habitats (14.3 percent), with Entamoeba sp. showing a greater prevalence in livestock-influenced sites (18.8 percent) compared to natural sites (8.5 percent). Ascarid eggs, Bunostomum sp., and Strongylida larvae were also more prevalent in livestock-influenced areas, while Muellerius capillaris and Capillaria sp. were higher in natural habitats. Principal coordinates analysis based on Bray–Curtis dissimilarity showed that horse and chauri samples clustered closely together, while musk deer samples from both habitat types overlapped considerably with each other but showed partial overlap with livestock patterns, suggesting potential parasite spillover. Permutational multivariate analysis of variance confirmed that host group explained 38.2 percent of the total variation in parasite community composition (F = 18.13, p = 0.001).

The findings align with previous work in Nepal’s Langtang National Park, where gastrointestinal parasite prevalence in musk deer was reported at 88.9 percent and Eimeria spp. were documented in both musk deer and chauri, hinting at mutual transmission. They also echo broader reviews showing substantial parasite overlap between wild and domestic ungulates. However, the Eimeria prevalence of 7.5 percent in musk deer here is considerably lower than the 65 percent reported in captive forest musk deer from Chinese breeding centres, a difference the researchers attribute to environmental and management factors such as soil moisture, sanitation, and climatic conditions. Molecular studies in China have also detected Enterocytozoon bieneusi in captive alpine musk deer at 6 percent infection, with genotypes common to both humans and animals, highlighting potential zoonotic concerns.

The study provides an important ecological baseline for a remote and understudied region, showing that musk deer face high baseline parasite pressures regardless of livestock influence, while livestock presence clearly alters the composition of specific parasite taxa. Because the identification relied on morphological techniques, the researchers emphasize that future work should integrate molecular tools to achieve species-level resolution, which will be key to tracking cross-species transmission pathways. For an endangered ungulate whose populations already contend with poaching, habitat loss, and competition with livestock, the shared parasite community documented in Lapchi Valley adds a further layer of risk—one that early monitoring and coordinated management of grazing lands may help mitigate before spillover becomes outbreak.

Subject of Research: Gastrointestinal Parasites in Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschus leucogaster Hodgson, 1839) and Sympatric Livestock in Gaurishankar Conservation Area, Nepal

Article Title: Gastrointestinal Parasites in Himalayan Musk Deer (Moschus leucogaster Hodgson, 1839) and Sympatric Livestock in Gaurishankar Conservation Area, Nepal

Article References: Sharma, R., Koju, N. P., Adhikari, A., Maharjan, M., & Deshar, R. (2026). Gastrointestinal Parasites in Himalayan Musk Deer ( Moschus leucogaster Hodgson, 1839) and Sympatric Livestock in Gaurishankar Conservation Area, Nepal. Veterinary Medicine and Science, 12(6), Article e71266. https://doi.org/10.1002/vms3.71266

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1002/vms3.71266

Keywords: Gastrointestinal, Parasites, Himalayan, Musk, Deer, Moschus, leucogaster, Hodgson, Sympatric, Livestock, Gaurishankar, Conservation

Betaine, also known as trimethylglycine, is a naturally occurring compound found in sugar beets, spinach, and other plants. It plays a central role in cellular chemistry as a methyl donor, participating in reactions that regulate gene expression and protein function. But its most relevant property for heat-stressed animals is its role as an osmolyte, a molecule that helps cells retain water and maintain their internal balance when the body is losing fluid through sweating and panting. Because betaine is inexpensive and already approved as a feed additive in many countries, the researchers saw it as a practical candidate for protecting livestock welfare without requiring expensive infrastructure like cooling sheds.

The study, led by Jamal Nasir and Surinder S. Chauhan, is among the first to test betaine under conditions that mimic the increasingly common reality of hot nights. Most previous research on heat stress in sheep has assumed that animals can recover overnight when temperatures drop. But as climate patterns shift, nocturnal temperatures in many sheep-producing regions are rising too, meaning animals never fully recover from the day’s heat load. To capture this scenario, the team designed an experiment where heat-stressed lambs experienced daytime temperatures between 28 and 38 degrees Celsius with 40 to 60 percent relative humidity, followed by nights that stayed warm at 26 to 28 degrees Celsius.

Forty-eight crossbred lambs, a Merino, Border Leicester, and Dorset cross aged six to ten months, were randomly assigned to one of four groups in a two-by-two factorial design. Half were kept in thermoneutral conditions at 18 to 21 degrees Celsius, while the other half faced the heat stress regimen for fourteen days. Within each temperature group, lambs received either a control diet or a diet supplemented with 2 grams of betaine per day, a dose previously shown to be effective in heat-stressed sheep. The researchers then measured rectal temperature and respiration rate three times daily and collected blood and muscle samples to analyze plasma metabolites and antioxidant enzyme activities.

The results were striking. Under heat stress, lambs receiving betaine had significantly lower rectal temperatures at both the 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. measurements compared with control lambs. At 9 a.m., betaine-supplemented lambs averaged 39.6 degrees Celsius versus 39.7 degrees in controls, and by 1 p.m. the gap widened slightly to 40.1 versus 40.2 degrees. Respiration rate told a similar story: at the hottest point of the day, betaine-fed lambs breathed 181 times per minute compared with 194 in the control group. While these differences may seem modest on paper, they represent meaningful physiological relief for animals whose bodies are working overtime to dissipate heat.

Beyond the visible signs of heat strain, the researchers looked deeper into the biochemistry of stress. Plasma cortisol, a hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to stress, was significantly lower in betaine-supplemented lambs on day seven of the trial, measuring 15.8 nanograms per milliliter compared with 20.3 in controls. Lower cortisol suggests that betaine did not just mask the symptoms of heat stress but actually reduced the physiological burden the animals were experiencing. Chronically elevated cortisol can suppress immune function, reduce feed intake, and impair growth, so keeping it in check has real implications for animal welfare and productivity.

Perhaps the most technically significant findings came from the muscle tissue analysis. Lambs receiving betaine under heat stress showed markedly higher activity of two key antioxidant enzymes: glutathione peroxidase and catalase. Glutathione peroxidase activity rose from 54.1 to 75.6 nanomoles per minute per milligram of protein, while catalase activity more than doubled from 12.4 to 33.2 nanomoles per minute per milligram of protein. These enzymes form the front line of cellular defense against reactive oxygen species, unstable molecules that damage cell membranes, proteins, and DNA. Heat stress is known to accelerate the production of these damaging molecules, overwhelming the animal’s natural antioxidant systems and contributing to muscle damage, reduced growth, and poorer meat quality.

The mechanism behind betaine’s protective effect likely involves several converging pathways. As an osmolyte, betaine helps cells maintain volume and function under the dehydration stress that accompanies heavy panting and sweating. As a methyl donor, it supports the production of S-adenosylmethionine, which is involved in synthesizing glutathione, the molecule that glutathione peroxidase uses to neutralize peroxides. By bolstering both the physical resilience of cells and the biochemical machinery that cleans up oxidative damage, betaine appears to address heat stress from multiple angles simultaneously. The researchers note that this dual action may explain why the supplement produced measurable improvements in both physiological indicators and enzymatic defenses.

The implications for the sheep industry are considerable. Heat stress costs livestock producers billions of dollars annually through reduced weight gain, lower fertility, increased mortality, and compromised product quality. As extreme heat events become more frequent and prolonged, and as warm nights increasingly prevent overnight recovery, the problem is expected to intensify. The study’s authors suggest that dietary betaine supplementation could serve as a cost-effective strategy to safeguard lamb welfare and productivity under these changing conditions. Unlike structural interventions such as shade structures or cooling systems, which require significant capital investment, betaine can simply be added to existing feed rations at minimal cost.

While the findings are promising, the researchers acknowledge that further work is needed to determine optimal dosing strategies, long-term effects, and whether the benefits extend to other livestock species and production systems. The study was conducted over fourteen days with a specific breed cross under controlled conditions, and real-world farming environments introduce additional variables such as exercise, variable feed intake, and fluctuating weather. Nevertheless, the research represents an important step toward practical, science-based nutritional interventions that can help livestock adapt to a warming world. The work was supported by Japan’s Society for the Promotion of Science through its Program for Forming Japan’s Peak Research Universities, and the full paper is available open access for producers, researchers, and policymakers interested in building more climate-resilient livestock systems.

Subject of Research: Effects of dietary betaine supplementation on physiological stress responses and antioxidant enzyme activity in heat-stressed lambs

Article Title: Dietary betaine supplementation improves oxidative status and ameliorates the negative effects of heat stress in lambs

Article References: Nasir, J., Hiraishi, M., Dunshea, F. R., Warner, R. D., McGill, D., & Chauhan, S. S. (2026). Dietary betaine supplementation improves oxidative status and ameliorates the negative effects of heat stress in lambs. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-05001-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-05001-y

Keywords: betaine, heat stress, lambs, antioxidant enzymes, cortisol, animal welfare, livestock, oxidative stress, climate change, sheep nutrition, thermoregulation, Discover Sustainability

The scale of the issue is enormous. According to FAO land use data, roughly one-fourth of the world’s land area—almost 3.2 billion hectares—is covered by permanent meadows and pastures, and about 80 percent of all agricultural land is devoted to livestock, whether as grazing land or for fodder production. An estimated 4.6 billion livestock animals, excluding poultry and pigs, roam the continents, tended in part by several hundred million pastoralists whose production systems, climates, species and environments vary enormously. Despite this diversity, academic debates and policy decisions often rely on uniform approaches that approximate each livestock species’ climate impact using standardized data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The editors of the Special Issue, led by Andrei Marin of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences together with Jonathan Davies, Fiona Flintan, Carol Kerven and Rashmi Singh, contend that such one-size-fits-all estimates misrepresent the complex realities of pastoral systems.

The evidence for this misrepresentation is mounting. A recent exchange between the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Norwegian statistics authority revealed that reported enteric methane emissions from sheep in Norway were overestimated by 30 percent in every annual report going back to 1990. Similarly, a global meta-analysis of methane emissions from bovids indicates that emissions from yaks on the Asian Plateau may be as much as 39 percent lower than the standard IPCC Tier 2 model would predict. The editors are careful to note that this does not mean IPCC models are wrong or always overestimate; rather, even flexible estimates depend on difficult simplifications and approximations of each livestock system.

The details required for reliable methane emission indicators are extraordinarily fine-grained. Researchers would need to know how much an animal moves during a day, the seasonal cycle of weather conditions, the temperature of the animal facility, and even whether a crust is allowed to form on top of liquid manure tanks. Because of this, measuring emissions directly in the atmosphere above livestock systems holds promise for better estimates—and at least one study shows that for highly intensive systems, methane emissions may actually be as much as 90 percent higher than IPCC calculations suggest. This discrepancy carries a sobering implication: the hypothesis that intensifying livestock production reduces greenhouse gas emissions, especially in developing countries, deserves caution. Even with ambitious and costly technological improvements, the effect may amount to less than a quarter of the emissions expected under a business-as-usual scenario—and that is before accounting for the broader social and environmental costs of such transformations.

There is also a pronounced data bias. Most of the data used in greenhouse gas emission assessments comes from intensive livestock systems in the global North, while narratives about livestock emissions continue to shape policies targeting the extensive systems of pastoralists in the global South. The stakes are high: positions taken by governments, international donors and NGOs can influence support for livestock sectors through initiatives such as the Breakthrough Agenda. Consumers, meanwhile, increasingly factor environmental impact into food choices, and official dietary guidelines in some regions promote major reductions in livestock products for so-called planetary health—guidelines that have drawn criticism, most recently in the form of legislative initiatives banning meat-related product names such as “hamburgers” and “sausages” for plant-based alternatives. The textile industry is likewise marketing alternatives to livestock products as less climate-damaging. All of these choices rest on a limited understanding of the complex relationship between pastoralist systems and climate, one that seldom accounts for local specificities or indirect effects such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation and albedo maintenance.

The Special Issue probes this debate by distinguishing two broad forms of livestock production. Intensive systems rely on capital investment, technologies such as housing and fencing, and supplementary feed, allowing denser animal populations and faster growth driven by concentrated feed and antibiotics. Extensive systems—pastoralism—involve animals predominantly grazed on open pastures, often with mobile herding and communal land use, characterized by lower external inputs, a higher ratio of labour, and lower livestock density per unit of land. Evidence is accumulating that intensive systems carry greater negative climate impacts, while extensive systems can play a substantial role in safeguarding climate-regulating ecosystem services. To assume all livestock production systems have comparable harmful effects may overlook the genuine benefits of pastoralism.

Yet the picture is not uniformly rosy for extensive systems. A study of cattle farming in Amazonia, Brazil, by Corrêa and colleagues found that moderately intensified farms achieve 55 percent higher meat production than extensive farms with similar energy consumption per hectare. Intensive farms produce dramatically higher yields—nine times those of extensive systems—but consume 14 times more energy per hectare, primarily through fertilization and supplemental feed, and emit seven times more greenhouse gases per hectare, with methane accounting for the bulk. Intriguingly, intensive farms show 55 percent lower emissions per ton of meat. The authors conclude that eco-efficiency can be improved through moderate intensification, but that further intensification reverses these gains, crossing a tipping point into energy-hungry, mechanized production. Recommended practices—many already used by pastoralists—include rotational grazing, improved stocking rate management, soil fertility maintenance, pasture restoration and forage management.

Other case studies reinforce the need for precision. In Tanzania, Mwilawa and colleagues compared traditional grazing with feedlot systems, showing that supplementary concentrate feeding raises the feed conversion ratio and lowers methane emission intensity per unit of product, while also revealing breed differences: Boran cattle produced more enteric methane than Tanzanian Short Horn Zebu, likely due to greater dry matter intake associated with larger body size. In Kenya, Gurmu and colleagues calculated Tier 2 annual emission factors for cattle across seasons, finding significant differences by breed, herd composition, live weight, weight gains, milk yield and digestible energy—variability that Tier 1 assumptions ignore and that risks miscalculating pastoral emissions. From Mongolia, Lkhamaachin and colleagues produced country-specific Tier 2 calculations for sheep across desert-steppe, steppe and forest-steppe zones, incorporating seasonal weight change, pasture quality and the energy cost of migration. Their findings included surprises: young adult sheep emitted up to 20 percent less than the IPCC standard, while mature sheep and lambs exceeded it, and Mongolian sheep converted more feed energy into methane, presumably due to harsh climate, extensive mobility and low forage digestibility. Rather than blanket livestock reduction, the authors propose management targeted at ewes during pregnancy and lactation.

Goats, often blamed for environmental degradation, receive a more nuanced verdict. A review by Kerven shows that goats, with high feed conversion efficiency, emit less enteric methane than all other domestic ruminants, and that goat-based pastoral systems play a vital role in building livelihoods in difficult socio-environmental contexts—including the cashmere trade. In Mediterranean Turkey, Ocak Yetişgin and Canan document the Sarıkeçililer community’s annual 400–450 kilometre migration between coastal highlands and upland pastures, a tradition now squeezed by climate change, market pressures and policy neglect. They argue pastoralism should be recognized as a cornerstone of sustainable agriculture, not a relic. From the Indian Himalayas, Banka and colleagues show that the Chopan community’s rotational grazing remains within ecological limits, maintains soil fertility and supports regional food security, despite structural marginalization. Davies and colleagues map the enormous photovoltaic and wind energy potential of pastoral rangelands, warning that green transition projects could either secure pastoral land rights or dispossess communities, depending on safeguards and consent. An ethnographic study in northern Mongolia by Imoli critiques the detached, abstract concept of climate change used by institutions, showing how post-socialist upheaval left pastoralists navigating a volatile market and changing climate with minimal institutional support.

The overarching message is captured in a phrase the editors highlight: “it’s not the cow, it’s the how!” Rather than seeking common metrics, the editors propose understanding the complexities and particularities of individual pastoral systems. Future research should incorporate fine-grained seasonal data and extended methodologies such as Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, Life Cycle Costs and Social Life Cycle Assessment. With the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralism in 2026 uniting more than 420 organizations to dispel myths and strengthen policy frameworks, the editors argue that nuanced, context-specific understanding is indispensable for just policy pathways—and that pastoralists, far from being a climate problem, may yet prove part of the solution.

Subject of Research: The role of pastoral livestock systems in climate change, methane emissions accounting and rangeland sustainability

Article Title: Editorial: The role of pastoral livestock and products in climate change: a complicated issue

Article References: Marin, A., Davies, J., Flintan, F., Kerven, C., & Singh, R. (2026). Editorial: The role of pastoral livestock and products in climate change: a complicated issue. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 16, Article 16611. https://doi.org/10.3389/past.2026.16611

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/past.2026.16611

Keywords: pastoralism, livestock, climate change, methane emissions, IPCC, rangelands, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, green transition, transhumance, sustainable agriculture, Tier 2 emissions

The editorial, led by Deb P. Pandey of Agriculture and Forestry University in Nepal, together with Cormac Price of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Emily N. Taylor of California Polytechnic State University, introduces a Research Topic that drew ten manuscript submissions, of which seven were accepted for publication, a 70% acceptance rate. The published work involved 27 authors from 21 institutions across eight countries spanning four continents: Nepal, India, Zambia, Namibia, Taiwan, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. The contributions ranged from original research articles and a review to a perspective, a brief research report and a technology-and-code paper, covering snakebite epidemiology, prevention, urban ecology, conservation, impacts on domestic animals, traditional knowledge and novel public engagement tools.

The central theme emerging from the collection is the continuing global burden of snakebite and the need for innovative, locally grounded prevention strategies. Snakebite remains a pressing public health problem in many rural tropical regions, and the editorial stresses that effective responses must be embedded within broader social and health systems rather than treated as isolated medical interventions. The studies collectively demonstrate that snake-related challenges transcend geographical, cultural and disciplinary boundaries, and that solutions require both biological understanding and meaningful engagement with the communities who live alongside snakes.

Two contributions focus on community-level prevention. Singh and colleagues examined community-targeted snakebite prevention in rural Zambia, drawing on grassroots experience to identify the practical barriers and enabling factors that determine whether educational initiatives succeed in resource-limited settings. Their analysis highlights the importance of locally tailored interventions, genuine community participation and improved healthcare accessibility. In a parallel effort, Chandrasekharuni and colleagues produced a narrative review of the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust’s long-running snakebite mitigation programme in India, showing how sustained institutional commitment, community engagement, education, research and advocacy can reduce the snakebite burden in one of the world’s most snakebite-affected countries. Together, these papers offer a template for organizations and policymakers working in comparable contexts.

The collection also pushes the boundaries of snakebite epidemiology. Damm and colleagues reported clinically relevant envenoming from the Western Hognose Snake (Heterodon nasicus), a species not generally counted among the world’s major medically important snakes. The finding underscores that lesser-known or inadequately described species can still cause clinically significant bites under specific circumstances, and the authors call for improved reporting, documentation and awareness of risks posed by minor medically significant snakes, a reminder that the global snakebite burden may be underestimated when surveillance focuses only on recognized danger species.

Urbanization and land-use change are increasingly important drivers of human-snake conflict, producing both bites and the unnecessary, unregulated and often illegal killing of snakes. Mao and colleagues investigated conflicts involving the brown-spotted pit viper Protobothrops mucrosquamatus in northeastern Taiwan, analysing conflict patterns, environmental characteristics and the outcomes of snake removal operations. Their work shows how urban ecology can inform evidence-based management that balances public safety with animal welfare and conservation objectives. In a related vein, Attre and colleagues documented the impacts of snakebite envenoming on domestic animals in Goa, India, revealing the economic and emotional toll on livestock owners and pet keepers. Frequent losses of animals, they note, harden public attitudes toward snakes and can intensify retaliatory killing, creating a feedback loop in which conflict begets further conflict.

Effective mitigation ultimately rests on understanding snake ecology and behaviour. Pandey and Piya contributed a study of the gut contents of Wall’s Krait (Bungarus walli), a medically important species in South Asia. Although framed as natural history, the research carries direct implications for conservation and bite prevention: knowing where snakes occur, what they eat, how they respond to environmental change and why they enter human settlements provides the foundation for pragmatic strategies that protect both people and reptiles. Ecological knowledge of this kind, the editorial argues, is the bedrock upon which realistic coexistence plans must be built.

Overcoming fear and misinformation remains one of the most persistent obstacles to snake conservation, because snakes are rarely perceived with the same sympathy as charismatic wildlife. Addressing this, Bachhuber and colleagues described the use of livestreaming technology to connect the public with secretive and frequently misunderstood snake species. By broadcasting encounters in real time, the approach broadens access to wildlife experiences, improves public understanding and fosters appreciation for animals that are often feared or persecuted. In the digital era, the authors suggest, livestreaming could become a promising tool for conservation education and public engagement, reaching audiences who may never encounter a snake in the field.

The concept of ethno-ophidiology runs through the entire collection. It acknowledges the diverse cultural, religious, symbolic, economic and traditional dimensions of human relationships with snakes, from community outreach programmes and local knowledge systems to attitudes toward venomous species and customary responses to snake encounters. The editorial emphasizes that successful interventions rarely depend on biological knowledge alone; they require an appreciation of how communities perceive risk, value biodiversity and engage with local traditions and belief systems. Integrating these social and cultural perspectives, the editors argue, is what elevates the Research Topic from a set of case studies into a more holistic framework for understanding human-snake interactions worldwide.

Looking ahead, the editors identify clear priorities for future research: expanding geographical representation, strengthening documentation of traditional ecological knowledge, evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, investigating the socioeconomic drivers of conflict, and exploring how climate change and urbanization will reshape human-snake interactions in the decades to come. The collection, they conclude, serves as a reference for researchers, conservation practitioners, public health professionals, educators and policymakers working on snakebite mitigation and coexistence, reinforcing the principle that sustainable solutions demand both scientific rigour and genuine engagement with the social dimensions of one of humanity’s oldest and most complicated relationships with wildlife.

Subject of Research: Global human-snake conflict, ethno-ophidiology and snakebite prevention research

Article Title: Editorial: Global human-snake conflicts and ethno-ophidiology—bridging human health, biodiversity conservation, and cultural understanding

Article References: Pandey, D. P., Price, C., & Taylor, E. N. (2026). Editorial: Global human-snake conflicts and ethno-ophidiology—bridging human health, biodiversity conservation, and cultural understanding. Frontiers in Amphibian and Reptile Science, 4, Article 1917690. https://doi.org/10.3389/famrs.2026.1917690

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3389/famrs.2026.1917690

Keywords: snakes, snakebite, ethno-ophidiology, human-wildlife conflict, conservation, public health, urban ecology, venomous snakes, community engagement, livestock, livestreaming, traditional knowledge