Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management
Livestock are a critical part of our food systems, yet their abundance globally has been cited as a driver of many environmental and human health concerns. Issues such as soil, water, and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, aquifer depletion, antimicrobial resistance genes, and zoonotic disease...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adb050 |
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| author | Rebecca Logsdon Muenich Sanskriti Aryal Amanda J Ashworth Michelle L Bell Melanie R Boudreau Stephanie A Cunningham K Colton Flynn Kerry A Hamilton Ting Liu Michael L Mashtare Natalie G Nelson Barira Rashid Arghajeet Saha Danica Schaffer-Smith Callie Showalter Aureliane Tchamdja Jada Thompson |
| author_facet | Rebecca Logsdon Muenich Sanskriti Aryal Amanda J Ashworth Michelle L Bell Melanie R Boudreau Stephanie A Cunningham K Colton Flynn Kerry A Hamilton Ting Liu Michael L Mashtare Natalie G Nelson Barira Rashid Arghajeet Saha Danica Schaffer-Smith Callie Showalter Aureliane Tchamdja Jada Thompson |
| author_sort | Rebecca Logsdon Muenich |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Livestock are a critical part of our food systems, yet their abundance globally has been cited as a driver of many environmental and human health concerns. Issues such as soil, water, and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, aquifer depletion, antimicrobial resistance genes, and zoonotic disease outbreaks have all been linked to livestock operations. While many studies have examined these issues at depth at local scales, it has been difficult to complete studies at regional or national scales due to the dearth of livestock data, hindering pollution mitigation or response time for tracing and monitoring disease outbreaks. In the U.S. the National Agricultural Statistics Service completes a Census once every 5 years that includes livestock, but data are only available at the county level leaving little inference that can be made at such a coarse spatiotemporal scale. While other data exist through some regulated permitting programs, there are significant data gaps in where livestock are raised, how many livestock are on site at a given time, and how these livestock and, importantly, their waste emissions, are managed. In this perspective, we highlight the need for better livestock data, then discuss the accessibility and key limitations of currently available data. We then feature some recent work to improve livestock data availability through remote-sensing and machine learning, ending with our takeaways to address these data needs for the future of environmental and public health management. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ae1fae5bb8da4c3f94bc2f481d5c2d7c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-ae1fae5bb8da4c3f94bc2f481d5c2d7c2025-02-11T07:00:37ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262025-01-0120303100110.1088/1748-9326/adb050Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease managementRebecca Logsdon Muenich0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9920-9346Sanskriti Aryal1https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0852-7274Amanda J Ashworth2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3218-8939Michelle L Bell3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-1359Melanie R Boudreau4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6280-5598Stephanie A Cunningham5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4470-3299K Colton Flynn6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5718-1071Kerry A Hamilton7https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2991-7325Ting Liu8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2899-2983Michael L Mashtare9https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8987-5863Natalie G Nelson10https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3258-7622Barira Rashid11https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4601-1675Arghajeet Saha12https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3983-3005Danica Schaffer-Smith13https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3896-1483Callie Showalter14https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5934-333XAureliane Tchamdja15https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7173-4241Jada Thompson16https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9970-1461Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, AR, United States of America; Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of AmericaQuantitative Ecology and Spatial Technologies Laboratory, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University , Mississippi State, MS, United States of AmericaUnited States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service , Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit, Fayetteville, AR, United States of AmericaSchool of the Environment, Yale University , New Haven, CT, United States of America; School of Health Policy and Management, College of Health Sciences, Korea University , Seoul 02841, Republic of KoreaQuantitative Ecology and Spatial Technologies Laboratory, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University , Mississippi State, MS, United States of AmericaQuantitative Ecology and Spatial Technologies Laboratory, Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University , Mississippi State, MS, United States of AmericaUnited States Department of Agriculture, Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory , Temple, TX, United States of AmericaSchool of Sustainable Engineering & the Built Environment, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ, United States of AmericaBiological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, AR, United States of America; Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of AmericaDepartment of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park , PA, United States of AmericaScience and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of America; Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC, United States of America; Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University , Raleigh, NC, United States of AmericaBiological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, AR, United States of America; Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of AmericaBiological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, AR, United States of America; Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of America; Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas , Lawrence, KS, United States of AmericaSchool of Life Sciences, Arizona State University , Tempe, AZ, United States of AmericaScience and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of America; Department of Environmental Science and Policy, Smith College , Northampton, MA, United States of AmericaScience and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability , Raleigh, NC, United States of America; Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland Baltimore County , Baltimore, MD, United States of AmericaAgricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Arkansas , Fayetteville, AR, United States of AmericaLivestock are a critical part of our food systems, yet their abundance globally has been cited as a driver of many environmental and human health concerns. Issues such as soil, water, and air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, aquifer depletion, antimicrobial resistance genes, and zoonotic disease outbreaks have all been linked to livestock operations. While many studies have examined these issues at depth at local scales, it has been difficult to complete studies at regional or national scales due to the dearth of livestock data, hindering pollution mitigation or response time for tracing and monitoring disease outbreaks. In the U.S. the National Agricultural Statistics Service completes a Census once every 5 years that includes livestock, but data are only available at the county level leaving little inference that can be made at such a coarse spatiotemporal scale. While other data exist through some regulated permitting programs, there are significant data gaps in where livestock are raised, how many livestock are on site at a given time, and how these livestock and, importantly, their waste emissions, are managed. In this perspective, we highlight the need for better livestock data, then discuss the accessibility and key limitations of currently available data. We then feature some recent work to improve livestock data availability through remote-sensing and machine learning, ending with our takeaways to address these data needs for the future of environmental and public health management.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adb050livestockpollutionclimate changenutrient managementzoonotic disease riskmanure |
| spellingShingle | Rebecca Logsdon Muenich Sanskriti Aryal Amanda J Ashworth Michelle L Bell Melanie R Boudreau Stephanie A Cunningham K Colton Flynn Kerry A Hamilton Ting Liu Michael L Mashtare Natalie G Nelson Barira Rashid Arghajeet Saha Danica Schaffer-Smith Callie Showalter Aureliane Tchamdja Jada Thompson Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management Environmental Research Letters livestock pollution climate change nutrient management zoonotic disease risk manure |
| title | Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| title_full | Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| title_fullStr | Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| title_short | Gaps in U.S. livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| title_sort | gaps in u s livestock data are a barrier to effective environmental and disease management |
| topic | livestock pollution climate change nutrient management zoonotic disease risk manure |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/adb050 |
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