SPECIAL ZOOTECHNICS
cod. 23776

Academic year 2024/25
2° year of course - Second semester
Professor
Giovanni BUONAIUTO
Academic discipline
Zootecnica speciale (AGR/19)
Field
Discipline della zootecnica, allevamento e nutrizione animale
Type of training activity
Characterising
40 hours
of face-to-face activities
2 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Integrated course unit module: Special zootechnics

Learning objectives

D1 – Knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, the student will be able to have knowledge and understanding about:
1. The key elements of morpho-functional evaluation of animals in livestock production.
2. The characteristics of beef cattle breeding and the different types of housing.
3. The characteristics of pig breeding and the different types of structures.
4. The characteristics of sheep and goats rearing.
5. The characteristics of buffaloes breeding.
6. The chemical-physical and technological properties of sheep, goat and buffalo milk.
7. The characteristics of rabbit and poultry breeding.
8. The characteristics of equine breeding.
9. The characteristics of carcass and meat quality in the different categories.
10. The key elements of animal welfare, the main legislation for cattle and swine welfare and relationships with breeding structures.
11. Basic knowledge of hygiene livestock, the main modalities of cleaning, disinfecting and disinfestation and the main elements of livestock biosafety.
12. The main concepts of physioclimatology, climate and microclimate, methods of measurement of climatic parameters, definition and calculation of THI.

D2 – applying knowledge and understanding
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Contribute to the proper management of a livestock farm
2. Contribute to the prevention of problems that can meet a livestock farm
3. Know how to detect and interpret the main parameters of a livestock farm
From the portfolio, the student must also demonstrate to be able to make:
-Age determination in large animals
-BCS evaluation
-Morphofunctional evaluation of farm animals
-Filling of Stud-book and/or passport.

D3 – Making judgements
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. To evaluate the requirements of livestock breeding;
2. Give opinions on the morpho-functional evaluation of large animals.

D4 – Communication skills
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Express clearly and with appropriate terminology during description of concepts concerning the characteristics of livestock breeding.
2. Read, translate and explain scientific papers written in Italian and English;

D5 – Learning skills
At the end of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Learn concepts relative to livestock breeding;
2. To find and learn autonomously the new scientific guidelines on livestock breeding;
3. Assess the impact of the different breeding variables on farming management.

Prerequisites

Prerequisites: 1005122 - Anatomia Normale Veterinaria and 1004812 - Zootecnica Generale e Miglioramento Genetico

Course unit content

During the course guided tours to cattle, buffalo, sheep, horses, pigs, rabbit and poultry farms will be carried out.

Full programme

Guided tours to cattle, buffalo, sheep, horse, pig and poultry herds.

Bibliography

AA:VV. Benessere Animale . Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Umbria e Marche Editore, 2010
BITTANTE G., ANDRIGHETTO L., RAMANZIN M.: Tecniche di produzione animale. Liviana Ed., Torino, 1993
MONETTI P.G.: Allevamento dei bovini e dei suini. Cristiano Giraldi Ed., Città di Castello (PG), 2001.
NAPOLITANO F., DE ROSA G., GRASSO F., Comportamento e benessere degli animali in produzione zootecnica. Aracne Editrice, Roma, 2007.
Slides shown at lesson
Students can find the pdf files of lessons on the Elly platform.

Teaching methods

The course will be conducted through visits to livestock farms in order for the student to understand, through direct, field experience, the theoretical concepts described in the classroom in the other module. In addition, the student will have the opportunity to compare with people in the field with regard to the management of different types of livestock farms.
The farms are specially chosen on the basis of diversification criteria in order to show a wide range of possible livestock farms.

Assessment methods and criteria

Assessment of achievement of the course objectives requires that this module be taken together with the Special Animal Husbandry module.

Other information

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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development

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