Wildfire season is upon us and many large fires are already raging in the South and West. How do these environmental disturbances affect livestock health and production? You’ll meet Amy Skibiel Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. She explains how wildfires have a long-term impact — long after the fires go out.
Wildfire season is upon us and many large fires are already raging in the South and West. How do these environmental disturbances affect livestock health and production? You’ll meet Amy Skibiel Ph.D. from the University of Idaho. She explains how wildfires have a long-term impact — long after the fires go out.
Hello, and welcome to the Top Con Talks Agriculture podcast. On each episode, we discuss and share topics that are important to farmers, growers, and agribusiness. My name is Dan Hendricks, and I am your host for today. I serve as a senior business development manager for Topcon Agriculture, and I get to work with an amazing team of talented individuals who love agriculture. They enjoy technology, and they strive to help farmers and growers find solutions. In today's episode, we are going to get a better understanding of the impact that wildfires have on livestock, both the health of the animals and their production. And although I personally live in the Midwest and rarely experience wildfires close to my home, wildfires are a major problem. In other parts of the United States, like you, I've seen the news footage and the media and see the devastation that the fires bring to people and to property. This past summer, my wife and I were in Lake Tahoe and we were vacationing, and we got to witness the scars of the massive forest fire firsthand that ravished that area in August of 2021. And, um, I, it was interesting to learn that the fire had gone on for two months and it had scorched about 350 square miles of acreage in that area. And it was incredible to see the impact. But weather experts are now telling us that climate change, ongoing droughts and drier climates have been predicted to increase the risk of wildfires in many areas of the world. And we know that these areas affect people and property. But in today's podcast episode, we are going to examine the effect these fires have on agricultural animals and their production. Some of the major concerns for agriculture when wildfires are there are changing of grazing patterns, loss of supplies, including pastures and the animal's health. Just listen to these statistics for a moment. 7.6 million acres were destroyed in 2022 by forest fires in 69,000 separate fires. The worst year for wildfires on record was 2015 when 10 point 13 million acres of land were burnt. And in terms of monetary damages, 2017 was the worst year in US history with wildfires causing 24 billion, not million billion with a B 24 billion in damages. Studying the impact of wildfires on human health has been rapidly expanding, but the impact on livestock, on the other hand, has been very limited. Primetime for wildfires depends on the summer temperatures, rainfall and wind. And in California, most fires have historically happened in June and July. However, recent data is pointing to that season is lengthening with wildfires starting earlier in the year and lasting well into the fall and winter months. So, to help us understand the impact of wildfires on animals, we have the pleasure of having Dr. Amy Gibble join us today. Amy is an assistant professor at the University of Idaho where she heads up research projects in lactation biology and environmental physiology. Her and her team work to investigate various environmental conditions that affect animal health and the impact on milk production. One of her most recent research projects is diving into the impact of wildfire smoke exposure on dairy cattle health and performance in the Pacific Northwest, which makes her an expert on today's topic. So, Amy, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Uh, well, it's an honor to have you and, uh, can't wait to, for you to enlighten us and help us understand this impact of what's going on with wildfires. So tell us a little bit about the skiable lab. Uh, what are your main areas of research?
Speaker 2:Sure. So we have a couple of different, um, lines of research. One focus is, is more, uh, in the biology, lactation biology realm per se. So we're interested in how energy metabolism changes across lactation and then also in response to, uh, environmental conditions and changes in it, in the environment. Um, we're really focused on the kind of cellular level there, looking at tissues and specific cells, um, across the body and how they respond to coordinate whole animal energy metabolism. And then the other track of my research is, is focused on environmental physiology. And of course there are some bridges between lactation and environmental physiology as well, which we will get into, um, during this podcast today. But, uh, in, in that line, our research focuses on the effects of heat stress on dairy cattle, as well as the effects of wildfire smoke exposure and inhalation in dairy cattle as well.
Speaker 1:How did you become interested in this field? I mean, how did you, uh, get to this point where you're doing this kind of research?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. So I grew up in the Northeast. I was not really exposed to wildfires there, um, wasn't really on my radar. I did a, a postdoc at the University of Florida where I was studying heat stress and how heat stress reduces milk production in dairy cattle. And so I, I had a strong background in environmental physiology when I moved out here to Idaho. When I took this assistant professor position. Um, I had been talking to colleagues and students and everybody had been telling me how every summer the wildfire smoke is really bad. We don't necessarily have a lot of direct wildfires where we are in Moscow, Idaho, but we, we do get the smoke blowing in from Montana, from Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, all around us. Um, any, I mean, we do get fires here occasionally, so we'll get the smoke from those as well. And so, you know, they had been telling me how bad this issue is here, and I was talking to another one of my colleagues, um, Dr. Pra Ramond, who I collaborate with on all of this research that we're going to talk about today. And we were coming back from a conference, the Pacific Northwest Animal Nutrition Conference in Boise, Idaho in 2020. And we got to talking about this subject and I said, you know, like, this is my, this is my field. This is my realm. Um, this is what I do, environmental work. So we decided to move forward and, and start doing some research because there really was nothing published at that point in time. There, there was not, there were no researchers that were studying this topic. And so that's what kind of launched my interest in wildfires. And of course, the more I was reading about the issue and then of course experienced it firsthand,<laugh>, um, I realized how catastrophic these fires are. And you're absolutely correct that experts are predicting they're going to increase in frequency and severity into the foreseeable future.
Speaker 1:Help our listeners understand how far the fires can be away from these animals and still impact them, because that's interesting that you have said that they're in Idaho, you know, you're, you're not that close to the fires themselves, but how far of a distance are we talking about that they, that still impacts the animals?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it can, the animals can be quite a distance away from the actual direct area burned. Um, you, we could get smoke in Pennsylvania from fires in California. They smoke can blow across the Atlantic ocean, you know, and, and hit Europe. So it really depends on the, the severity of the fire and the wind conditions really. Um, so, you know, they could, animals could be in people for that matter, hundreds of miles if not thousands of miles away from the source of the, the smoke and still be affected by it.
Speaker 1:I would've never guessed it could have been that far away that that is. That's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yes. And in fact, um, two years ago, 2021, um, there were many severe wildfires that were occurring in California that year. And I was talking to family in Pennsylvania and my mom was taking pictures, you know, out her window and you could see the smoke in the air.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So help us understand why is it important to have this type of research available?
Speaker 2:It's really important to understand what we're dealing with, um, if we want to try to come up with ways to mitigate the problem. So first of all, we, we know the research in humans suggest that there are effects on health from wildfire smoke inhalation. And we know that cattle oftentimes don't have the capacity to seek indoor refuge when there are episodes of poor air quality. So in our minds, we're thinking, I'm sure animals are going to be affected as well, potentially even more so than humans, because they don't have the, the choice to escape from those conditions. And nobody had been studying it. I mean, there's a potential that farmers are losing revenue, um, from reduced production, from health impacts that are costly, um, to, to resolve. And we can't get at those types of questions unless we know what the problem is. So the first step was to ask, is this a problem? Mm-hmm.<affirmative>. And then subsequent steps, once you either see or you don't see there's a problem, if there's a problem, then you can start taking steps to really understand what is the root cause of the problem and start coming up with strategies and solutions to mitigate that problem. And that was our thought process in all of this research and finding that there is a problem, and we will get to that, I'm sure during this podcast. Um, you know, our ultimate goal with this research is to, um, have resolutions, have guidance for producers so that they can, um, better manage and protect their herds.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So they know what they're dealing with.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:So help us understand what some of the research by your lab has shown so far. Like what have you learned?
Speaker 2:Sure. So we, we've done a few studies now. The first one was a very preliminary study where we collected data from, uh, three different farms in the Pacific Northwest. And we were just looking at general associations between these wildfire smoke episodes and changes in animal health. So we went through farm management records and just looked for correlations between days when there was, um, high levels of wildfire smoke, poor air quality, and incidences of, um, health problems in, in animals. And those health problems could range from pneumonia, for example, to, um, lameness to mastitis. And what we found in that preliminary work was that across these farms in this region, we see that when there are episodes of wildfire smoke, we also see an increase in incidences of disease, just general illness and disease in cows, mature cows. And we also see an increase in the risk of mortality in dairy calves. And so that was our, the first suggestion that there was a problem, and there was this association between being exposed to pollutants in wildfire smoke and health consequences. So our next step was to conduct a more in depth study. This was done at the University of Idaho. So our, our first, um, study here was looking at the effects of natural wildfires on mature lactating Gary cows. And we were looking at parameters such as, um, milk production, um, somatic cell count, milk composition, all those are all production related metrics as well as, um, measures of immunity, immune status, um, and health metrics such as respiration rates and rectal temperatures. Those are often the indicators that tell you that something's going on with that animal. And what we found in that research was that during a wildfire smoke event in that particular summer, we had, um, an episode that lasted about seven days. And during that whole seven days, cows were producing less milk on the order of about three to six pounds of milk per day. And then, uh, that decrease in milk production persisted for a week after the smoke dissipated. Interesting. Now it's possible those effects last longer than that. We only looked out to a week after, uh, the smoke exposure. So over that period of time. So that was about 14 days of a decrease in milk production every day. Yeah. And I give you that range because that range is really based on the levels of a specific component in smoke, which is particulate matter, and that's the one we're most concerned about. We have the most research and most data available on that component of smoke in the human literature. And we know that the fine particulates can be inhaled deep into the lungs and they can deposit there in the lungs and cause issues in the respiratory system, but they can also cross the lungs and circulate in the bloodstream as well. So that's why our focus is on particulate matter
Speaker 1:With you saying all that. I mean, there's huge monetary effects to agriculture, to the dairy, which then in turn makes milk prices or, or could potentially make milk prices go up, right. Because you have, um, the health of the animals, you have mortality rates going up and you're having milk production go down. So it's basically just cutting out a lot of the efficiencies that these dairies are working so hard to, you know, produce milk at the, at the highest level that they can. Correct.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And, you know, we haven't done an economic calculation yet, but you can do a quick, you know, back of the napkin calculation and realize that just in one state we we're talking about millions of dollars just when we have, you know, 14, 21 days of reduced health production associated with fires. And one point I'd like to make, and I think this is an important point, is we know that there is a huge effect of ambient temperature on milk production in dairy cattle. The effects that we are seeing from wildfire smoke are independent of the temperature.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So when, so basically in summers where we have high temperatures and wildfires, it's really a double whammy.
Speaker 1:I see. So it's it's two separate things that are affecting dairies a lot.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. And so I say we see this range, and actually the range is between about three and nine pounds of milk loss per day per cow, depending on the specific particulate matter level in smoke.
Speaker 1:And and what percentage wise, what is that a loss of?
Speaker 2:It's close to 10%. Okay. On the upper range of, of that? Yes. So typically a, a dairy cow, lactating dairy cow, especially at peak production, they're gonna be producing somewhere around 80 pounds of milk per day per cow.
Speaker 1:Now have you seen it affect the taste of the milk or the quality of the milk?
Speaker 2:We have not noticed that. And honestly, I would be surprised with these acute episodic events that it would have a huge effect on, uh, milk taste.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Now, with you doing this study there, there has to be some challenges that you face in collecting this data. I mean, what, what are some of the, the difficulties that you've ran into, into trying to, to get this data together?
Speaker 2:I think probably the most challenging thing is just being ready to go, go when there is a wildfire event. I mean, pretty much the whole summer we have to be at the ready, we're collecting sample baseline samples before, um, we have wildfires, and then we have to be ready to run out to the farm. As soon as, you know, the, the air quality is reduced and we know there it's coming from wildfires. Um, we have to be able to, to get out to the farm and collect those samples in a timely manner. I think the other obstacle, of course, is that when we are out on farm collecting samples, we are also being exposed to poor air quality and it's difficult to wear, um, masks. I mean, of course we can wear, um, specific types of masks that will filter out those particulates. Um, the same kind of masks that, you know, we were wearing during, um, COVID times and we're still in covid times, but<laugh>, we don't have the mask mandates anymore. You know, the N 95 masks do a pretty good job of filtering out the particulates as well, but that makes it very difficult to breathe and actually do your work. Um, so those are, were some of the big challenges. But I, I think the biggest one is just being able to deploy at a moment's notice and, and be able to get out and collect our samples efficiently.
Speaker 1:So how many days would you say you or your team were out last year?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. I think we did six or seven, no, I think we did close to eight collections last year. That's just during wildfires. We then had two collection points after, and we had about four collection points before. So a long time<laugh> it, it pretty much amounted to like a solid month of, you know, time wise. Yeah.<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Now why do you think the data is so limited in, in, in this area?
Speaker 2:I, that's a great question. You know, there, there's now a, a great breadth of research on effects of human exposure. And I think that's, especially not only because of the interest in public health, but also for, uh, firefighter safety as well. There are some studies on wildlife. So for example, there's studies on orangutans. Um, there was a study done on a captive group of bottle nosed dolphins that were housed in the San Diego Bay as part, as part of the US uh, naval pod. Um, and there's some additional research on, on, um, on wildlife and dispersion, especially away from the source of wildfires, but not in livestock. You know, according to a survey that was put out by some, uh, collaborators of mine at Oregon State University, they found over the past several years that producers are becoming more aware and they're starting to observe some of the negative impacts of wildfires on their animals, even if they're not in the direct path of wildfires. So I think with the increase in the severity of wildfires, with the press coverage about the, the catastrophic nature of these massively large wildfires along with producers and the public being out in it and being more aware of, of this occurrence, um, I, I think, I think people are just becoming more attuned to what's happening.
Speaker 1:And besides the physical and respiratory issues you've talked about, are there other neurological and reproductive issues that you're seeing that get affected by these wildfires?
Speaker 2:So one of the outcomes of that survey that I mentioned was farmers were noticing difficulties in, um, getting cows pregnant during wildfire season. We have not done any research thus far on reproduction per se. Um, so I don't have an answer for that yet, although that is an area of interest of ours moving forward. Um, beyond that, neurologically we don't, we haven't really done any research on, on that line either. Um, we do see changes in behavior, however Okay. With calves.
Speaker 1:In what ways
Speaker 2:Last? Yeah, so for a couple of summers we have had, um, transponders on the ankles of calves, so we could monitor how they were moving around in space. And we see that the calves actually spend more time standing and moving around in less time lying down. Uh, when there are wildfires, I'm not entirely sure what that means. It could be potentially maybe an innate response to try to flee from areas of poor air quality. Um, but we're looking more into that and, and we're actually working on analyzing our data from this past summer, but that's what we've seen preliminarily so far.
Speaker 1:Do you ever see any signs of, uh, smoke or dust irritation in the animals, like coughing or any kind of physical response like that? You can just look at an animal and you can tell how the, the smoke is bothering them and and what are those?
Speaker 2:Yes, we do, we see greater, um, ocular discharge. So we see more, um, mucus more tears coming from the eyes during smoke and after as well. We also see an increase in coughing in, in the calves as well, especially in the calves.
Speaker 1:So if surviving cattle don't show any long-term effects of a wildfire, should producers be aware of potential problems down the road that may happen, perhaps even after the wildfire is gone?
Speaker 2:You know, just judging by the human literature, I think there is the, the potential that wildfire smoke could have persistent effects, but also delayed effects. And we are seeing some delayed effects, um, with, with some of the parameters, um, that we've measured thus far already. So for example, we do see changes in some, um, immune cell populations in the blood, but that's delayed by about three days, which is interesting. And we see that both in cows and calves. It could be that there are further delays, you know, beyond three days out to weeks or so. Um, I also think that it takes animals and, and humans time to recover from these events, especially depending on, um, their exposure levels. And so it, it might take months potentially to recover from a respiratory ailment, for example, stemming from wildfire smoke exposure. So I definitely think it's, um, important to pay attention to the animals, especially during these times, and to be monitoring them following that as well. Um, because absolutely these, these effects could persist for a long period of time or they could be delayed. We just got, um, U S D A funding to study long-term effects on animals. So that work is going to be starting this year. So hopefully we will have a more solid answer in, in the next year or two on, on long-term effect.
Speaker 1:<laugh>. Well, it sounds like you're just kind of scratching the surface of exactly what you guys are learning. Um, and, and you kind of touched on this, but how can producers best care for their animals during these wildfires? Uh, because I, I would guess that they're somewhat limited in what they could, can do.
Speaker 2:Yes. And that's the million dollar question and, and what our research is working towards, because right now the guidelines that, uh, we have for producers are not that great and they're not always feasible. For example, one of the recommendations is to keep animals inside<laugh>. Well, that's not a possibility, right? For most producers, sure. They don't have a spare barn, you know, that, that has the capacity to house all of their animals during the whole wildfire season, or even for a small period of time when a wildfire smoke event comes through their area. Um, so we need to have better solutions for producers to, to prevent the harm in the first place or if it does come through to, to mitigate that and resolve it quickly after. Some of the other guidelines are to, to just monitor your animals, watch your animals during and after these events, look for increased coughing, look for, um, changes in, um, in willingness to eat. Are they, are they going off of feed? Um, looking for increases in tears from the eyes or discharge from the nose, drooping ears? All of those are signs that the animal isn't feeling well. And producers should seek veterinary consultation if they see any of those. Uh, making sure that animals have access to water is really important. Not only dur any time really, um, during the summer when it's hot, but also because drinking water also hydrates the respiratory tract, and that helps to trap those particulates and other air pollutants in the respiratory tract before it makes its way to the lungs. So it can be more easily expelled. Um, some other guidelines are to, to try not to exercise animals more than they absolutely need to, both during these events and also following them because we know that increased respiration rates happen during wildfire smoke events, and we don't wanna increase respiration rates even further by exercising them, because that just increases the amount of pollutants that are coming into the lungs and giving animals space to heal after as well. Making sure we're not stressing animals, trying to transport them, you know, the day after they've been exposed, um, to these high particulate lever levels from smoke. And then of course there's, there's some prevention as well. Um, just making sure that, you know, dead brush and debris is cleared off of, um, farms so that we're preventing fires from happening in the first place.
Speaker 1:Have you seen the results, uh, from, um, dairy owners that have taken what you're saying, your recommendations, and they're putting those into practice, they're learning from your data? I mean, I would, I would think some of it is common sense, but other things that you're saying that they would go, okay, well we weren't aware of that, or, um, are, are you seeing that put into practice?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's a great question and I haven't been tracking to see those recommendations did not come out of our research or our lab. Um, just to be very transparent on that, um, we are trying to develop more targeted approaches, um, for producers because again, some of those guidelines yes, are common sense and some are just not feasible. So we need, we need better solutions potentially through dietary interventions, through, um, medicinal interventions, um, ways of potentially cleaning, scrubbing the air from those pollutants so the animals aren't exposed to'em. So these are all avenues that we're exploring and we will be testing, um, one of those approaches in this new grant that, that we just received. So we're hoping to have more targeted approaches and more fine tuned guidelines for producers moving forward.
Speaker 1:So is there any research that you have done to suggest that if a fetus is exposed to this smoke during pregnancy, that there would be lasting health effects that would go on beyond, uh, that generation of cattle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's an excellent question and one that we're actually working on right now. Towards the end of last year, um, we were successful in, um, receiving a U S D A grant. It's called a rapid response program, which is meant to be, um, quick data generation and quick, um, extension and, and education resources made available for producers and stakeholders, um, related to a climate associated natural disaster or event. And for that project, we have been following two groups of, um, calves that were either exposed in utero to wildfire smoke, so the dams were pregnant, um, at the time they were exposed to smoke. Those dams have since calved and we're following the calves up to six months of age. We also have a control group of calves that, uh, were not exposed in utero, so we're still working on that. Um, you know, there will be data coming out of that, but since it's an ongoing project and we just started three months ago, we don't have results yet<laugh>.
Speaker 1:Sure. Well, it sounds like you have a lot of ongoing, uh, work and some long-term goals. Uh, is there, are there specific results that you're hoping to achieve out of this study?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean, I think every result that we get gives us a little bit more information, um, and, and another piece to the puzzle to kind of figure out what is going on physiologically in the animal behaviorally. Um, as far as production goes, as far as health goes, and as, as we are, um, developing this knowledge in gaining these pieces to the puzzle, it allows us to build a really solid foundation to move forward and develop ideas and strategies for producers that we can then test and say, yes, it works, or, yes, it doesn't work. And so really again, the ultimate goal is to be able to have these recommendations in place and they have been scientifically tested and, um, show that they are effective before we bring those to producers. And I, I do just wanna follow up by saying, although our work thus far has really been focused on dairy cattle, this isn't a problem that's unique to the dairy cow. Um, I think some of the, the data that we're generating also can translate to other species as well, to beef cattle, to sheep, goats and so on. Um, even though we haven't done specific work with those species yet, I think it absolutely, um, translates to other industries outside of the dairy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, we appreciate your, your passion and all of your hard work and your team's hard work to, to help dairy owners kind of understand the, the impact. And just for our listeners just in general, to understand the impact that, that these wildfires are, um, are having. It, it, it's just, it's fascinating and I know most of our listeners are just very pro agriculture, so it, it helps us to kind of understand what's going on and, um, even if they're not in the dairy, uh, arena, they, they kind of understand what the impact is going on. So, uh, I wanna thank you, Amy, so much for, for coming and sharing, uh, your research and some of the results and just helping expand. I know for me, I learned a lot and helping expand, um, this problem and, and working so hard to find solutions for it. We greatly appreciate that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I really appreciate the invitation.
Speaker 1:And if you're listening and you wanna find out more information, uh, about Amy and the work that she's doing, you can go to ww dot livestock wild fire hub.org. You can also reach out on Instagram and Twitter at Cattle Fire Group. And if you're on LinkedIn, if you will search Livestock and Wildfire Research Group, you can find out more about this fascinating information and research that Amy is involved in. And I want to thank each of you that are listening today and have taken the time to tune in. Topcon appreciates all of our friends in agriculture who work so tirelessly to put food on our tables. And if you've enjoyed this episode, remember to, like, share, subscribe to Topcon Talks Agriculture on Spotify, apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please tell your friends about us. We'd love for you to follow Topcon Agriculture on social media. And thanks again for tuning in today. See you next time. Go out and make it a great day.