Sustainable Goat Production in the Changing Climate

Dr. Veerasamy Sejian is Dean of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Puducherry, India, and previously served as Principal Scientist at the ICAR–National Institute of Animal Nutrition and Physiology, Bengaluru. His research focuses on animal physiology, climate resilience, and adaptation to environmental stress, with particular emphasis on small ruminants. He is recognized for advancing research on the impacts of multiple environmental stressors on livestock and for investigating molecular, genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenetic mechanisms associated with stress tolerance in goats.Dr. Sejian has authored numerous scholarly publications, book chapters, technical resources, and edited volumes in the fields of animal science and climate adaptation. He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals and contributes to research and policy discussions related to livestock production under changing environmental conditions. He has supervised postgraduate and doctoral researchers and continues to support collaborative research, education, and capacity-building initiatives in animal and veterinary sciences. Dr. M.V. Silpa (M.V.Sc) is a Research Assistant at the Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Justus-Liebig-University, Giessen, Germany. Her research primarily focuses on linking animal genetics with heat stress, its impact on animal production, adaptation and assess thermo-tolerance, in goats and dairy cattle. She has been working on establishing the impact of heat stress on caprine skin using a holistic approach involving skin metagenomics, transcriptomics and epigenetics. She’s also working on assessing the impact of heat stress in dairy cattle under field condition. In her short research career, she has published over 13 peer-reviewed publications 34 book chapters, 8 popular articles, 7 invited papers, 22 conference papers and 14 NCBI sequence submissions. She also has 6 best paper presentation awards to her credit. She is a budding researcher with a lot of aspirations to do advanced research in the field of animal genetics and thermo-tolerance in livestock. Dr. D. Thirunavukkarasu specialized in Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Extension Education and is currently serving as Scientist, Farm Science Centre of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, India located at Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu. He has published peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and farm literatures. He has played a critical role in strengthening livestock-based livelihoods through technology transfer activities. In similar capacities, he has been associated with International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) and Indo-UK and DFID programs of RIVER, Puducherry in the past. He was a team member in establishing of Farm Science Centre(s) of Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, India. His current work focuses on socio-economic and behavioral factors driving adoption and diffusion of promoted technologies in the livestock sector. At his current workplace, he has been principal investigator /co-principal investigators for various research programs on technology transfer. He also has served as Chairman / members in advisory committee of masters and PhD students.

• Section I: Climate Change and Goat welfare1. Heat stress associated welfare indicators based on behavioural, physiological, endocrine, and biochemical response2. Transportation of goats during summer seasonSection II: Impact of Climate Change on Goat Production3. Heat stress impact on growth performance in goats4. Heat stress impact on reproductive performance in goats5. Heat stress impact on meat characteristics and quality in goats6. Climate change impact on products quality in goats7. Heat stress impact on immune response in goats8. Climate change associated nutritional stress on goat performance9. Walking stress impact on goat production10. Climate change associated water stress impact on goat production11. Climate change associated disease occurrences in goatsSection III: Molecular mechanisms governing Goat Adaptation to climate change12. Role of molecular chaperons governing heat stress response in goats13. Heat stress mediated changes in the rumen microbiota in goats14. Heat stress associated changes in the whole transcriptomics profile in goats15. Epigenetic changes associated with goat adaptationSection IV: Strategies to sustain goat production in the changing climate scenario16. Enteric methane emission and strategies for mitigation in goats17. Management strategies to sustain goat production18. Challenges associated with controlling internal parasites in goats19. Nutritional interventions to augment goat production20. Biotechnological tools and genetic approaches to optimize goat production in changing climate scenario21. Climate resistant technologies for goat production22. Extension strategies in adaptation to climate change with a special reference to goat farming23. Strengthening Climatic research-Extension-Farmers linkages to promote climate resilience goat production system24. Climate change associated economic implications of goat farming and role of women in mitigating the effects25. Adaptation of livestock services delivery system to mitigate the effects of climate change on goat farming26. Policies upscaling for future goat productionSection V: Conclusion and Future Projections27. Concluding remarks and future researchable priorities