Learning objectives
Despite the limitations related to the Covid-19 pandemic, the practical training course aims to achieve the following educational objectives:
- Study of the main food-borne zoonoses
- Legislative insights into livestock slaughter (welfare of animals during transportation and slaughtering process; ante-mortem and post-mortem examination; causes of exclusion of meat from human consumption; microbiological controls at slaughter)
- Inspection of fishery products: substitution fraud, freshness assessment, parasites transmissible to humans, histamine content, presence of heavy metals
Prerequisites
none
Course unit content
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the practical training is mainly based on seminars delivered online and FAD (Distance Learning) courses provided by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell'Emilia-Romagna.
In particular, by means of seminar and FAD courses, the following topics are examined:
- Food-borne zoonoses: update on sources, zoonotic agents and food-borne outbreaks
- Systematic classification of fish species
- Inspection issues of fishery products
- Welfare of animals at slaughter
- Official ante- and post-mortem inspections of slaughter animals
Full programme
The traineeship at university facilities involves practical exercises and seminars on aspects already covered during the third and fourth years in the courses of Food Hygiene and Technology and Inspection and Control of Food of animal origin. The activities in which students are involved concern the performance of microbiological analyses of food matrices in the context of the methods prescribed for accredited laboratories. In addition, traineeship students may collaborate in ongoing research projects, limited to the PPT period. With regard to seminars, students can follow in-depth professionally oriented lectures on topics of inspection interest held by lecturers and PhD students. Visits to some food industries (such as slaughterhouses, cheese factories and ham factories) are also scheduled.
Bibliography
There are no reference textbooks
Teaching methods
Online seminars held by tutors and FAD courses provided by the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna
Assessment methods and criteria
Traineeship students are required to prepare power point presentations on the topics addressed during the seminars and the FAD courses and present them to the traineeship supervisor. FAD courses include a mandatory final examination.
Other information
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