35681 - Animal Breeding

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student knows all the elements necessary for morphological evaluation of the major livestock species andthe main features of ethnographic.

Course contents

Morphological, physiological, biological and psychological characters. Habitus and complexion. Species, sub groups and specific race. Regions in bovine, equine and pigs. Perpendicularity, on-site movements and gaits. Coats and their peculiarities. Age determination in cattle and horses. Determination of body condition score (BCS) in cattle and horses. Productive attitudes. Main breeds of cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and ewes. Livestock breeding methods in practice. Methods of castration and effects of castration. Variability of characters. Causes of changes: environment, nutrition, fitness function of different organs. 

2 hands-on exercise will be carried out in classroom (dividing students into 4 groups for 4 hours total per student) to learn the age of cattle and horses by viewing a complete set of incisive tooth preparation of these animals.

Towards the end of the theoretical course (frontal lessons) a practical exercise in cattle barn will be carried out (4 groups of students with 2 hours per student) in order to assess the practical BCS, the age of live cattle and the morphological assessment of the bovine breast.

Readings/Bibliography

Tests needed for exam preparation:

Veggetti A., Falaschini A. Anatomia, fisiologia, zoognostica. Edagricole scolastico, 2009

Iconographic material made available to the teacher and materials of the ethnography of the different species prepared by the students is available online at: http://erclib.vet.unibo.it/jb/ud/falaschini/

Support tests:

Falaschini A. Zootecnia generale, Edagricole Bologna, 1994

Bittante G., Andrighetto I., Ramanzin M. Fondamenti di Zootecnica, Liviana Ed. 1990

 

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons, seminars and practical activities (in classroom and in cattle barn). During the course frequently is required by the teacher the interactivity with students on issues already undertaken necessary to understand the topic of the day.

Assessment methods

Final oral test will be done at the end of the course.

Important is the participation in the frontal lesson and fundamental is the participation of practical activities to learning key topics of the course program

Teaching tools

The course for the theoretical part will be done in the classroom with audio-visual systems; the practical part to learn age of cattle and horses is performed in classrooms.Exercises are also conducted on dairy cattle in the experimental cowshed. DPI (boots) are available at the cattle stable buti t is recommended to bring the personal coat or green to wear for the stall exercise

Office hours

See the website of Marco Tassinari