Livestock Rearing on Saline Water

Abstract

Water is one of the most important components for livestock which is intimately involved in a wide array of bodily functions, growth, pregnancy, as well as lactation. Water demand of livestock not only involves drinking water but also water used for servicing the animals mainly in commercialized farms to clean production units and to wash animals, for cooling the facilities and animals and for waste disposal. Water intake of livestock is mainly influenced by physiological state, environmental temperature, relative humidity, diet, dry matter intake, milk yield, body size, breed, and disease status. Besides all the above factors, it is the quality of the water source that ultimately affects its acceptability by the livestock and which in turn affect nutrient intake and feed utilization. Among these total dissolved solids (TDS) or salinity is the major factor that determines the suitability of particular water resource for livestock. The presence of high concentrations of some inorganic ions such as Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Na⁺, Cl⁻, SO₄ ²⁻, and HCO₃ ⁻ in animal’s drinking water may cause harmful effects resulting in poor performance, illness, or even death. Major challenges of livestock rearing on high saline water are immediate reduction of water as well as feed intake which ultimately decreases production. Desirable maximum drinking water TDS concentration (5000 ppm) for sheep in comparison to cattle (2500 ppm) is higher for healthy growth. Considering decreased water intake as main cause for decreased production, whether water intake at a particular TDS level is optimum in buffaloes can be predicted by equation $\left({\mathrm{r}}^2=0.80\right)\ \mathrm{water}\ \mathrm{intake}\ \left(\mathrm{L}/\mathrm{d}\right)=-7.81\hbox{--} 0.45\times \mathrm{T}\mathrm{D}\mathrm{S}\ \mathrm{ppt}+0.41\ \mathrm{Tmax}\;{}^{\circ}\mathrm{C}+2.97\times \mathrm{D}\mathrm{M}\mathrm{I}\ \left(\mathrm{kg}\right)\hbox{--} 0.0004\times \mathrm{B}\mathrm{W}\ \left(\mathrm{kg}\right)$. Due to both increased human and livestock population and climate change, the world is going to face water scarcity in the future. The high saline water has shown potential to be used as drinking water up to a particular TDS level in animals. This chapter emphasizes the effect of water salinity on animal health and performance. The level of TDS to which animals can be adapted with time has also been illustrated.