Animal sciences

The division is focused on breeding and genetics, genomics, feeding and nutrition, farming and processing technologies, systems and practices applied in all main animal value chains for efficient, high-quality, safe and sustainable production of food of animal origin.

Keywords: Breeding, Eggs, Farming, Feeding, Fish, Genetics, Meat, Nutrition, Pig, Poultry, Rabbit, Ruminant, Slaughtering, Sustainability, Welfare

Main research fields

Research activities aim at developing sustainable animal production systems to address the needs of all main animal production chains through:

Analysis of animal genomes, application of animal genetics, genomics, transcriptomics and phenomics for sustainable animal breeding and productions
Sustainable conservation and use of animal genetic resources
Application of molecular genetics for authentication and traceability of food products
Feeding strategies to improve milk, meat and egg quality, nutrient utilization and retention, gut microbial balance, and efficiency
Farming strategies to reduce the use of antimicrobials in livestock and to improve animal welfare and health, product safety and quality
Assessment and reduction of the environmental impact of animal production systems
Precision livestock farming and sustainability of animal production systems
Quality indexes and safety assessment of raw and processed foods of animal origin
Identification of porcine and poultry muscle abnormalities and effects on meat quality
Development of animal welfare indicators at farm, during transport and at slaughter.

People

Susan Caroline Alvarado Cummings

PhD Student

Research fellow

keywords: Circular economy, Bioeconomy, Sustainable intensification

Emilia Luigia Antenucci

PhD Student

Francesca Bertolini

Associate Professor

keywords: Livestock genomics, Animal breeding and selection, Livestock, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Next Generation Sequencing,

Daniele Bigi

Assistant professor

keywords: biodiversity, animal genetics, genomics, microsatellites, mitochondrial DNA

Matteo Bolner

PhD Student

Research fellow

keywords: Genomics, Bioinformatics, Data mining, Animal genomics, Metabolomics

Martina Bordini

Research fellow

Teaching tutor

keywords: Molecular biology, Transcriptomics, Broilers myopathies, Meat quality

Samuele Bovo

Junior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: Bioinformatics, Computational biology, Systems biology, Protein interaction networks, Genomics, Animal genomics,

Federico Correa

Junior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: Weaning, Gut Microbiota, Swine

Cecilia Crippa

Research fellow

Teaching tutor

Stefania Dall'Olio

Associate Professor

keywords: candidate genes, different traits, animal breeding, biodiversity, genetic markers, traceability

Jonathan Dayan

Research fellow

keywords: Molecular Biology, Poultry Embryology, Poultry Physiology, Poultry Nutrition, Poultry Meat Quality, Breast Muscle

Martina Felici

Research fellow

keywords: horse, welfare, behaviour, heart rate variability

Luca Fontanesi

Full Professor

keywords: Livestock genomics, Animal breeding and selection, Livestock, Food authenticity and traceability, Genetics,

Mara Antonia Gagliano

PhD Student

Research fellow

Teaching tutor

Pantaleo Gemma

PhD Student

keywords: Animal Welfare, Ethics and Legislation, Rabbit Welfare, Equines Welfare

Diana Luise

Senior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: Animal nutrition and feeding, Pig, Gut health, Microbiota, Weaning, Gestation and lactation

Paolo Macchioni

Assistant professor

keywords: swine, organic pig farming, micronutrients, carcass and lipid characteristics

Gerardo Manfreda

Full Professor

keywords: Salmonella enteritidis, Salmonella typhimurium, Listeria monocytogenes, Campylobacter jejuni, E.coli detection and

Leonardo Nanni Costa

Full Professor

keywords: animal welfare, meat quality, slaughtering, animal transportation, dry-cured ham defects, Thermography, Precision

Clara Negrini

PhD Student

keywords: Pigs, Intestinal healt, Weaning, Intestinal micriobiota, Nutrition

Barbara Padalino

Associate Professor

keywords: animal welfare, transport, equine, behaviour, PLF

Frederique Pasquali

Junior assistant professor (fixed-term)

Area dei Funzionari - Settore scientifico - tecnologico

keywords: food safety, food of animal origin, foodborne pathogens, microbial genomics, antimicrobial resistance

Massimiliano Petracci

Full Professor

keywords: Poultry, Rabbit, Meat quality, Broiler breast abnormalities, Meat processing, Seafood quality

Raffaela Piscitelli

Area dei Funzionari - Settore scientifico - tecnologico

PhD Student

Barbara Polimeni

PhD Student

Anisa Ribani

Junior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: Animal Genomics and Genetics, Molecular Biology, Food Genomics, Animal biodiversity, Next Generation Sequencing,

Giuseppina Schiavo

Junior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: Genomics, Bioinformatics, Next Generation Sequencing, Genetics, Food authentication and traceability, Metabolomics

Federico Sirri

Associate Professor

keywords: poultry production, nutrition and feeding, animal welfare, environmental impact, quality traits of meat and egg

Francesca Soglia

Associate Professor

keywords: Poultry meat quality, Rabbit meat quality, Muscular abnormalities (White Striping, Wooden Breast, Spaghetti Meat,

Paolo Trevisi

Full Professor

keywords: Weaning, Pig, Nutrition and dietay strategies, Gut microbiota, Gut health

Sara Virdis

PhD Student

keywords: Swine production, Animal nutrition, Arginine

Federica Volpe

PhD Student

keywords: poultry production, sustainability, Life Cycle Assessment

Paolo Zambonelli

Associate Professor

keywords: genome, single nucleotide polymorphisms, RNA-seq, meat and fat quality, biodiversity, growth efficiency, microarray,

Marco Zampiga

Adjunct professor

Research fellow

keywords: poultry production, nutrition and feeding, feed efficiency, sustainability, environmental impact, poultry product

Martina Zappaterra

Senior assistant professor (fixed-term)

keywords: meat quality, livestock science, animal welfare, genetics and genomics, micro-RNA markers, transcriptomics,