ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
• Full Professor, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences (DISTAL), University of Bologna (2018-present)
• Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural and Food
Sciences (DISTAL), University of Bologna (2014-2018)
• Assistant Professor, Department of Food Science,
University of Bologna (2005-2014)
• Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Food Science,
University of Bologna (2001-2005)
EDUCATION
• Ph.D. at the University of Perugia, 2001, Improvement,
Hygiene, Health and Quality of Animal Production; Dissertation:
Innovative techniques for evaluation of poultry and rabbit meat
quality.
• M.S. at the University of Bologna, 1997, Food Science and
Technology, Thesis: Study of water distribution in pork by low
resolution NMR spectroscopy.
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
Research activity involve several aspects of poultry and rabbit
production and product quality and currently is mainly focused on
the following topics:
• Nutritional value and technological properties of meat as
affected by genotype, housing and feeding in poultry and
rabbits
• Influence of preslaughter factors on slaughtering yield and meat
quality in poultry and rabbits
• Estimation and quality characterization of the main meat
abnormalities in poultry (PSE-like, oregon disease, white striping, wooden breast and spaghetti-meat)
• Technologies and functional ingredients for improving processing
yields and quality traits of processed poultry and rabbit
meat
• Methods for assessing quality
properties of poultry, rabbit meat and seafood
Collaboration with numerous national research groups in the
development of several research projects supported by the European Union such as H2020 (FutureEUAqua, NextGenProteins and INTAQT), Italian
Ministery of University (PRIN project - Lochal), Italian Ministery of
Agriculture and Emilia-Romagna region.
Author of 250 publications of which 130 full articles published on
peer-reviewed international journals (h-index = 40 and total
citations = 5,500 - from Scopus database accessed on December 2023) and for the third consecutive year he is named in the World's top 2% of Scientists released by Stanford University.
He has recently edited a book entitled "Improving poultry meat quality" (Burleigh Dodds, 2022) and "Poultry quality evaluation” (Academic Press, 2017) and he is author of several chapters in the following books "Sustainable meat production and processing" (Academic Press, 2018), “Food integrity handbook” (Eurofins Analytics France, 2018), “Dietary fibres. Properties, recovery and applications” (Academic Press, 2019) and Food Waste Recovery (2nd Edition, Academic Press, 2021).
He gave invited lectures on topics related to meat quality at the main international poultry and rabbit congresses:
• European Symposium on the Quality of Poultry Meat (2007 & 2019)
• Poultry Science Association Annual Congress (2008, 2015 & 2023)
• World's Poultry Congress (2012, 2016 & 2022)
• World Rabbit Congress (2012)
• European Poultry Conference (2014)
• International Congresses of Meat Science and Technology (ICoMST) (2020)
Collaboratio with cultural magazines and other information bodies, and author of articles of a popular nature and interventions in the media in the field of food culture and meat science. He was a speaker at TEDxCesena 2020.
COURSES TAUGHT
96463 - Quality of animal production (6 credits) at 1st Level Degree Course in Sciences and Culture of Gastronomy, University of Bologna (2022-present)
76546 - Quality of seafood (4 credits) at 2nd Level Degree
Course in Food Science and Technology, University of Bologna (2014-present)
29597 - Innovation in meat and egg processing (6 credits) at 2nd
Level Degree Course in Food Science and Technology, University of Bologna (2009-present)
01081 - Special Zootechny (6 CFU) at 1st Level Degree Course in Food Technology, University of Bologna (2018-present)
27950 - Production factors and quality of poultry and rabbit
products (3 CFU) at 1st Level Degree Course in Animal Production
and Control of Animal production and Control of Wildlife, Faculty
of Agriculture, University of Bologna (2012)
29515 - Advanced statistics (3 credits) at 2nd Level Degree Course
in Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, University
of Bologna (2010)
24438 - Poultry Production Technologies (5 credits) at 2nd Level
Degree Course in Food Science and Technology, Faculty of
Agriculture, University of Bologna (2006-2009)
INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES
• Chairperson of the Working Group 5 “Poultry Meat Quality” of
the European Federation of the World's Poultry Science Association
(WPSA) of which is national delegate since 2003
• Member of the BIOHAZ Working Group on "Mechanically Separated
Meat (MSM)" (2012) and AHAW Panel on “Assessment of studies on the use of
carbon dioxide for stunning rabbits” (2014) towards European Food
Safety Authority (EFSA)
• Member of UE-COST 848 Programme “Multi-facetted research in
rabbits: A model to develop a healthy and safe production in
respect with animal welfare”, regarding meat quality and safety
(2001-2005)
• Research activity at the Department of Poultry Science,
University of Georgia (USA), under the supervision of Professor
Daniel L. Fletcher as part of Ph.D programme (2000)
• Conducted research, taught, gave presentations at international
conferences in Norway, Brazil, Egypt, Canada, USA, Finland, France, The
Netherlands, Spain, Hungary and Greece.
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
• Coordinator of “Agricultural, Environmental and Food Science and Technology” Ph.D. Board at University of Bologna (2018-present) of which is member of Ph.D. Board since 2016. From 2005 to 2012, Member of “Food Science and Biotechnology” Ph.D. Board at University of Bologna
• Member of the Scientific committee of the libraries of Cesena Campus (2018-present) and "G. Goidanich (2014-2019) at University of Bologna
• Member of the Scientific committee of the Dept. of Agricultural and Food Sciences at University of Bologna (2014-2018)
• Scientific responsible of the library at Food Science Campus of Cesena, University of Bologna (2009-2012)
SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
• Affiliated to Animal Science and Production Association (ASPA), World Rabbit Science Association (WRSA), World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) and Poultry Science Association (PSA).
• Secretary and Treasurer of the Italian branch of the World’s Poultry Science Association (WPSA) (2012-present)
• Vice-President of the Italian branch of the World Rabbit Science Association (WPSA) (2010-2015 and 2022-present)
• Associate Editor of World Rabbit Science Journal (2013-present), Frontiers on Physiology (2019-present), Meat and Muscle Biology (2020-present) and World's Poultry Science Journal (2022-oggi)
• Reviewer for Scientific Reports, Plos One, Meat Science, Poultry Science, Journal of Animal Science, BMC Genomics, Frontiers in Physiology, Journal of Animal Science, Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Animal, World Rabbit Science, LWT - Food Science and Technology, Italian Journal of Animal Science, European Food Research and Technology, Journal of Food Engineering and Italian Journal of Food Science.
