CSU receives $15 million to study climate change, livestock

FORT COLLINS – Colorado State University received a $15 million grant to
study the impact of climate change on livestock around the world,
especially in developing countries.

CSU will manage the grant and develop partnerships for multiple research
projects over the next five years in areas that include sub-Saharan
Africa and central Asia. The U.S. Agency for International Development
awarded the grant to CSU’s Animal Population Health Institute and the
university’s Institute for Livestock and the Environment.

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The grant will fund CSU oversight of the project and research. The
research will focus on ways to help developing countries manage
livestock under changing climate conditions.

“The risks to livestock and developing livestock industries in these
countries as a result of climate change encompass a broad range of
issues and challenges, more than meet the eye to the general observer,”
said Mo Salman, principal investigator and professor in the College of
Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Salman said climate change in lands that are already arid or semi-arid
is resulting in decreased crop yields and pasture for livestock, which
makes it more difficult for farmers and ranchers to survive and drives
some into urban areas. That can change the social fabric of communities
and potentially increase political instability, he said.

Also taking part on the CSU team will be Shana Gillette, co-principal
investigator; Jessica Davis, program director; and Dana Hoag, associate
director. Other CSU department collaborators include the Natural
Resource Ecology Laboratory and the Warner College of Natural
Resources.