What question did this study set out to answer?

This study aims to identify physiological mechanisms contributing to heat stress resilience in different cattle genotypes.

May 7, 2026Open Access

Integrative multi-criteria decision analysis reveals thyroid-mediated metabolic regulation as a key driver of heat stress resilience in cattle

Key Points

This study aims to identify physiological mechanisms contributing to heat stress resilience in different cattle genotypes.
Evaluated hematological, biochemical, and hormonal responses of three cattle breeds (n=40/group) under severe heat stress.
Applied Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to analyze multidimensional parameters of thermotolerance.
Used Linear Discriminant Analysis to confirm breed-specific differentiation.
HF cattle showed elevated leukocyte counts (15.87 ± 0.94 vs. 8.33 ± 0.68 × 10⁹/L in KK; p < 0.001), indicating inflammation.
KK cattle had the highest FT4 concentrations (13.69 ± 0.88 vs. 10.17 ± 0.40 pmol/L in HF; p = 0.005) and FT4/FT3 ratios (3.69 ± 0.27 vs. 2.60 ± 0.14 in HF; p = 0.002).
MCDA ranked KK as most resilient to heat stress, followed by BR and then HF (KK > BR > HF; p < 0.001).

Abstract

Climate change-induced heat stress threatens tropical livestock production. While indigenous breeds are known to be thermotolerant, the underlying physiological mechanisms remain poorly characterized. This study comprehensively evaluated the haematological, biochemical, and hormonal responses of three cattle genotypes (n = 40/group) Holstein Friesian (HF), Brangus (BR), and Kedah-Kelantan (KK) maintained under severe natural heat stress (Temperature-Humidity Index: 79-88). During the peak thermal challenge, HF cattle exhibited significantly elevated leukocyte counts (15.87 ± 0.94 vs. 8.33 ± 0.68 × 10⁹/L in KK; p BR > HF; p < 0.001 for both TOPSIS and VIKOR methods). Linear Discriminant Analysis confirmed this robust breed-specific differentiation (88.9% classification accuracy; Wilks' λ = 0.18, p < 0.001). These findings establish thyroid hormone regulation and immune modulation as pivotal determinants of thermal resilience and demonstrate that the applied MCDA framework is a suitable approach for identifying climate-resilient cattle breeds.

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Sikiru et al. (Mon,) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/69fc2ba98b49bacb8b3479a2 https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-50963-8

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