Climate Change and Animal Health

This benchmark publication assembles information on the current and anticipated effects of climate change on animal health. It empowers educators, managers, practitioners, and researchers by providing evidence, experience, and opinions on what we need to do to prepare for, and cope with, the largest threat ever to have faced animals on this planet. With expert contributors from across the globe, the text equips the reader with information and means to develop sustainable adaptation or mitigation actions.

After introducing animal health in a climate change context, chapters look at specific animal health impacts arising from climate change. The book concludes with suggestions on teachable and actionable ideas that could be used to mobilize concepts provided into education or advocacy.

This book was written amid the COVID-19 pandemic and in the face of ever-increasing reports of on-the-ground, real-life climate impacts. Large scale wildfire and ocean heat waves killed unprecedented numbers of animals, while droughts in some areas and floods in others displaced thousands of livestock and made food scarce for even more. Climate change is real, and it is here. How we respond will have profound implications for people, biodiversity, welfare, conservation, societies, economies, and ecosystems.

Today's veterinary educators are awakening to the need to adapt and train a new generation of animal health professionals who can understand and plan for climate change, and this book is an essential resource.

Craig Stephen is a veterinarian and epidemiologist who has worked at the interface of human, animal, and environmental health for 30 years. His work evolved from finding and describing emerging environmental threats around the globe, to helping build the circumstances that allow for interspecies and intergenerational health equity. Craig has held a variety of One Health leadership positions including being the founding president and director of the Centre for Coastal Health, the scientific director of the Animal Determinants of Emerging Diseases Research Network, the Scientific Director of the British Columbia Occupational and Environmental Health Network, a Canada Research Chair in Integrating Human and Animal Health and most recently, the founding President of a new think tank striving to ‘future-ready" animal health professionals. He edited and co-wrote the books "Animals, Health, and Society: Health Promotion, Harm Reduction, and Health Equity in a One Health World" and ‘Wildlife Population Health". He co-edited "One Health: The Theory and Practice of Integrated Health Approaches." Dr. Stephen has over 200 peer-reviewed and technical reports. He currently operates a One Health and EcoHealth practice while retaining Clinical Professorships at the School of Population and Public Health (University of British Columbia) and School of Veterinary Medicine (Ross University).

Colleen Duncan is personally and professional committed to sustainability and education. Dual specialized in both veterinary anatomic pathology (ACVP) and epidemiology (PhD, ACVPM) she has worked in both diagnostics and research on a wide range of species and diseases. Colleen is on the veterinary faculty at Colorado State University and affiliated with the Colorado School of Public Health, the One Health Institute and the School of Global Environmental Sustainability. Her current efforts include the study of animal health impacts associated with climate change, the protection of animal health from environmental harms and identifying ways to minimize the environmental impact of veterinary care.