Structure, Trends, and Research Gaps in Climate Change and Heat Stress in Poultry Production: A Bibliometric Analysis

Climate change has intensified heat stress in poultry production systems, raising concerns about productivity, animal welfare, and system sustainability. This study aimed to analyze the evolution, structure, and emerging trends of scientific research on climate change and heat stress in industrial poultry production using a bibliometric approach. Records were retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases. After deduplication and eligibility screening, 342 documents published between 1974 and 2025 were retained. Bibliometric analyses were performed using Bibliometrix/Biblioshiny in RStudio, including publication dynamics, international collaboration, author co-citation, conceptual structure, thematic evolution, trend topics, and keyword co-occurrence. Scientific production increased markedly in recent years, with an annual growth rate of 8.36% and international co-authorship in 22.51% of the publications. China and the United States were the leading contributors. At the same time, the international research structure showed interconnected collaboration networks and complementary intellectual communities focused on physiological and neuroimmune responses, cellular and oxidative mechanisms, and nutritional and management-based mitigation. Heat stress was the main conceptual hub, connecting thermoregulation, oxidative stress, immunity, welfare, productive performance, and product quality. Heat tolerance, thermotolerance, chronic heat stress, and genetic adaptation showed recent or developing bibliometric visibility, although their structural and temporal patterns differed across analyses. However, heat waves, long-term resilience, validation under commercial conditions, climate-vulnerable regions, environmental engineering, and digital monitoring exhibited lower bibliometric representation and network centrality within the analyzed corpus. Future research should combine nutritional, physiological, genetic, environmental, and precision-monitoring approaches to support economically viable and climate-resilient poultry production.