13140 - Husbandry of Companion Animals

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student has the basic knowledge on mammals considered as pets, especially on dog and cat. In particular, the student is able to: understand the basic principles of dogs and cats rearing, with special reference to aspects related to the breeding, nutrition and wellness, evaluate the rearing techniques, use the information on genetic values.

Course contents

Dog and cat: origin and taxonomy, breeds classification, herd book and breeding schemes. Characteristics of the main dog and cat breeds. Hereditary pathologies, Dog and cat feeding. Basic information on other mammalians included in the pet category.

Readings/Bibliography

Pictures, graphs and tables showed during the lectures are downloaded from the web page of the teacher at this address http://www.unibo.it/docenti/leonardo.nannicosta

Teaching methods

The course is divided into two teaching parts, the first theoretical, consists of 30 hours of lectures supported by pictures and movies with the aim to provide basic information to assess the main aspects of pets husbandry. The remains 10 hours will be dedicated to seminars inviting breeders and stakeholders

Assessment methods

The exam of the “Husbandry of companion animals” course is based on the discussion of a short written paper (max 15 pages) delivered 7 days before the examination exclusively to the following site: http://www.compilatio.net/depositare/bkln9

The paper has to be focused on breed consistency, nutrition and hereditary diseases of dog or cat breeds, or other mammal considered as pet chosen by the student. The paper will be processed by Compilatio software devoted to avoid plagiarism. Excluding the breed standard, if the index of similarity is over 30%, the paper is rejected. It has to be written again and presented to the next session of examination. If the evaluation of paper is positive, a written copy of it must be presented during the examination, which ends with two short questions on topics reported on the slides showed during lectures and reported at the web pages of the teacher.

Teaching tools

PC with video projector.

Office hours

See the website of Leonardo Nanni Costa