65902 - Livestock Breeding

Learning outcomes

The student will achieve the knowledge of the essential technical-scientific elements of animal productions science and of selection methods and he/she will be able to face the control and the basic management of the more frequent farming and breeding systems . Moreover the student learns the fundamental elements of reproduction, genetic improvement and farming Technologies. The student will gain critical evaluations skills on livestock breeding themes of professional interest and a good aptitude to apply the skills achieved in the social and working frameworks.

Course contents

Course contents

The course of Zootecnia1 has two Units of 3 credits each . The two Units are the following:

Course of Livestock Breeding 3 credits (Prof.ssa Roberta Davoli) and Course of Farming Technologies 3 credits (Prof. Paolo Trevisi)

Programme of Course of Livestock Breeding ( 3 credits ) (Prof.ssa Roberta Davoli)

Course of Livestock breeding - 3 credits - (Prof. Roberta Davoli)

Unit 1. Animal production science and genetic improvement of livestock ( total teaching unit 1: 12hours)

Farm animal species. Systematic classification of the animals : concept of specie, breed. Study of breeds and their diffusion area. Livestock productions: statistics. Milk production . Lactation curve . Bovine meat production. Factors that influence meat production and meat quality. Factors that influence milk production and milk quality. Genetics and animal productions . Genetic progress of livestock and influencing factors. Selection methods for genetic improvement. Progeny test, Performance test, Sib Test, Pedigree index. Organisation of farm animal selection in Italy . Herd books of the main livestock species reared in Italy. Outline of BLUP methods. Crossbreeding between bovine breeds, aim of crossbreeding.

Competences achieved by the students with unit 1

a) knowledge of the essential biological and physiological basis of animal productions and selection.

b) knowledge of the factors influencing animal productions.

c) Achievement of evaluation capacity on livestock rearing and breeding

Unit 2. Livestock farming ( total teaching unit 2 : 8 hours)

Main kinds of rearing systems. Selection methods in livestock. Monogastric and polygastric animals: basic elements of animal nutrition and digestive physiology. Main animal feeds. Outline of nutrigenomics. Reproduction.Weaning of calves . Dairy cow rearing. Bovine meat production : Slaughtering procedures, Carcass grading .

Competences achieved from unit 2

a) knowledge of livestock systems and the basic elements of their management.

b) knowledge of production and reproduction methods and essential physiological basis.

c) achievement of fundamental elements to critically evaluate different livestock systems and application of the knowledges to the assessment of a livestock farm for the different aspects concerning livestock rearing and their products .

3) Seminars and visit to farms ( Teaching Unit 3:total 10 hours).

3.1 Visits to farms with livestock.

3.2 Seminars with techniques and experts on livestock farming and farm management.

Competences achieved unit 3:

a) Knowledge of the actuality of the livestock farming.

b) Achievement of the capacity to evaluate and apply in basic way the instruments gained during the course of lessons addressed to farm animls animal genetic improvement.

c) Validation of the elements aquired during the lessons though the meetings with operators involved in the specific Sector.

Programme of the Course of Farming Technologies : 3 credits (Prof. Paolo Trevisi)

The student that aim to attend this course should have already acquired a good compression in the basic biology, genetic and nutrition of farm animals. The course is divided in 6 units articulated in theoretical teaching:

1) Evidence on the economy of the pig market at National and European level

2) livestock technologies and slaughter procedures (outline of the legislation)

3) Main problems related with the pig breeding

4) Principles and methods of pig reproduction

5) Pig feeding in the different productive stages

6 ) Outline of genetic selection of pigs

The courses includes seminars carried out by the industry and professionals from the pig sector and a visit to a pig farm in which will be highlight the management techniques and the practical problems related with heavy pig rearing.

Competences achieved: The course give the basic scientific and technical knowledge about management, nutrition, genetic selection and slaughtering techniques for heavy pigs breeding, in order to obtain have good performance and products with high technological quality, suitable for the typical productions like Parma and San Daniele ham and other seasoned products. In particular, the student is able to: - manage farms - prepare feeds for different categories of animals - monitor the quality of the productions at company and consortium level - carry out technical assistance activities.

Readings/Bibliography

Course of Livestock Breeding ( Prof. Roberta Davoli)

1) Notes from the lessons

2) Slides presented and commented during the lessons that the teacher will give to the students

3) The following text-books:

G.Bittante, I.Andrighetto, M.Ramanzin. "Fondamenti di Zootecnica" -Liviana Editrice.

Course of Farming Technologies ( Prof Paolo Trevisi)

PowerPoint presentation

Teaching methods

Course of Livestock Breeding ( Prof. Roberta Davoli)

The course is splitted in 3 teaching units with two units represented by frontal lessons and the third is represented by specific seminars on the specific themes , visits to some farms with livestock ( dairy cows) and seminars with operators of the field on some of the themes developed during the course. The frontal lessons will be realised mainly by Prof.Roberta Davoli. For some lessons concerning the arguments of the course there  could be the support of   DrMartina Zappaterra who is an expert and competent type A Researcher in the specific field. The frontal lessons will be realised using  suitable documents and slides that will be given to the students at the end of the course for the exam.

Course of Farming Technologies ( Prof. Paolo Trevisi)

The courses is divided in two teaching units:

1) theory: 20 hours of frontal lectures supported by videos, photos and slides

2) Practice: 4 hours of seminaries and 6 hours dedicated to visit farms and other structure related with pig farming

Assessment methods

The lessons of "Livestock Breeding" and "Farming Technologies"are parts of the course of "Farm animals breeding" . Consequently the examination test will be performed only at the end of the lessons of the two courses described and it's represented by a short oral exam to check if the student achieved the knowledge of the elements developed during the course and has gained the capacity of critical evaluation in relation to the themes faced during the lessons . Therefore, the evaluation will take into account jointly the level of knowledge and the skills acquired by the student in relation to the contents of all of the teaching units. The final vote obtained in an oral exam will express the degree of achievement of an organic vew of the topics and subjects discussed during the lessons together with their critical utilization in relation to the themes faced during the course.  The final vote expressed in thirthy will take into account the partial evaluations obtained in the exam achieved in each module of the Integrated Course. The assessment of learning is done through an oral test, lasting about 20 minutes, during which the knowledge and skills acquired about each of the theoretical and practical teaching units / application will be assessed.  A mechanic and mnemonical knowledge of the topics ofthe  lessons , the lack of the specific level of knowledge   will determine a low vote, the presence of  serious gaps, a not suitable Language and minimal level of knowledge of the materials of examination will determine the lowest failing vote.  The final vote is the mean value of the two votes in each part of the exam Livestock Breeding" and "Farming Technologies

The exam is in italian language but is possible also for Erasmus students or foreign students to have the exam in english Language

Teaching tools

Teaching tools

For both courses the lessons will be traditional lectures supported by power point slides and other documents and materilas collected during visits that will be given to the students.

The slides will be put on line on the platform iol.unibo.it  for the students of the course

Office hours

See the website of Roberta Davoli

See the website of Paolo Trevisi