Impacts of saline water stress on livestock production: A review

Abdelsattar, M. M.; Hussein, A. M.A.; Abd El-Ati, M.N.; Saleem, A. M.

doi:10.21608/svuijas.2020.67635

Impacts of saline water stress on livestock production: A review

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Animal and Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt

² Department of Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut 71515, Egypt

10.21608/svuijas.2020.67635

Abstract

Limited freshwater resources and climatic change are major challenge face animal production industry, especially in the arid and semiarid regions. Climate changes are reflected in global warming and rainfall reduction, which in turn may increase the salinity of both soil and water. Within the reclamation strategy, groundwater will be the main source of used water in cultivated desert lands in Egypt. However, the groundwater has high salinity and the cost of desalination is expensive. This review gives an overview of the impact of using saline water as an alternative source of fresh water to avoid water scarcity effect on the performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of farm animals. The ability of animals to tolerate saline water depends on the animal species, salinity level and the type of salt minerals in water. Some studies indicated that the animals' performance improved in low levels of salinity, but the performance decreased when the salinity levels was increased. In conclusion, this study implies that the saline water containing high concentrations of minerals mainly sodium chloride can largely affect the livestock productive aspects.

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