Food Protection

Acquisition of knowledge referring the main problems of food pest control in processing and storing environments. Aspects of arthropod success. Potential arthropods vectors microorganisms. Insect morphology: tegument, head, chest, abdomen. Muscular, nervous, digestive, respiratory, circulatory, excretory, secretory, reproductive system. Development post-embryonic. Biology insect food and environment production and storage of food: Collembola, Thysanura, Psocoptera, Blattodea, Orthoptera, Lepidoptera (Pyralidae, Tinedae, Gelechidae), Diptera (Muscidae, Sarcophagidae, Calliphoridae, Piophilidae, Drosophylidae), Coleoptera (Curculionidae, Bostrychidae, Anobidae, Silvanidae, Bruchidae, Tenebrionidae), Imenoptera: (Formicidae, Vespidae, Apidae). Mites: features of morphology, anatomy and post-embryonic development. Development and control conditions. Prevention: environment, machinery, cleaning. Different food packaging resistance to insects attack: examining a hole in food packaging to determine infestation origin. Monitoring: direct visual examination, sieving, biological method. Filth-test method of analysis to detect arthropod fragments in a food: flours, pasta, honey, fruit juices, mushrooms, dried vegetables. Methods of analysis of infestations in environments: food traps, light traps, pheromone traps. How to use monitoring data. Physical control insect: controlled atmospheres, low and high temperatures, entoleter, inert dusts, vacuum. Insecticides: legislative references, formulated types, toxicity, knockdown effect, persistence, pyrethrum and pyrethroids, neonicotinoids, insect growth regulators and fumigants. Morphology and biology and ethology: Mus mus, Rattus rattus and R. norvegicus. Direct and indirect damages. Prevention and monitoring. Species detection, mechanical and chemical methods and results control. Outlines of pest management control of food and processing environments. Legislative references and considerations on Article 5 - 283/1962.
As regards the part relating to plant pathology, the course aims to provide fundamental knowledge on post-harvest alterations of plant products, both of abiotic and biotic origin, and on the strategies available for their control. In particular, the topics covered during the lessons are listed below. Respiration, ripening and post-harvest life of plant products. Hints of plant pathology: harmfulness of plant diseases, concept of disease and damage, economic importance of post-harvest diseases, classification of diseases, disease cycle. Host-pathogen interaction: pathogenic mechanisms, host defense mechanisms (pre- and post-infection barriers), physiological and biochemical changes in disease development. Factors influencing the development of post-harvest diseases: host-pathogen specificity, host susceptibility, post-harvest conditions, cultivation techniques, post-harvest conditions, stage of maturation and development, senescence, wounds, physiological stresses. Causes and physiopathological mechanisms of post-harvest losses: losses from physiological changes, damages caused by cooling and from abnormal composition of the atmosphere (1 CFU).General characteristics of phytopathogenic agents and the diseases they can cause. Phytopathogenic bacteria: the bacterial cell; the penetration of the pathogen into host tissues; colonization of the plant; the mechanisms of pathogenesis and related symptoms; the phase of evasion of the pathogen, ways of diffusion and inoculum survival; principles of defense against bacteriosis; bases of the systematics of phytopathogenic bacteria. Phytopathogenic fungi: structure and vegetative organization of fungi; fungal hypha, hyphal modifications and aggregations; the latency and germination of spores; growth of fungi and factors that can influence these life stages of phytopathogenic forms; modes of sexual and asexual reproduction of fungi and their relationships with the fungal taxonomy; examples of life cycles related to the main taxonomic groups, survival and spread of fungal inoculum. Morphological, phytopathological and toxicological characteristics of the main genera of fungi (Botrytis, Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Cladosporium, Alternaria, Monilia, Mucor, Rhizopus, Phytophthora) and bacteria (Erwinia, Pectobacterium) which damage vegetable products and commodities (0.75 CFU ). Physical methods and disease control strategies in post-harvest: refrigeration, high temperature, thermal conditioning and pre-preservation, oxygen and carbon dioxide, ethylene purification, hygrometric conditioning, ultraviolet light, gamma radiation, low pressure. Post-harvest chemical methods and control strategies: fungicides, methods of application of chemicals for plant disease control means, pesticide residues. Post-harvest biological methods and means of control: use of antagonistic microorganisms and their mechanisms of action, limits of biological control. Mycotoxins and mycotoxicosis: toxigenic fungi in plant products and main mycotoxins produced (aflatoxins, patulin, ochratoxin, toxins produced by the genus Fusarium) (1 CFU).
The evolution of the disease control approach. Concepts and differences among the different plant disease control strategies: from traditional principles of plant disease control to integrated pest management (IPM) and integrated production.
The different types of agricultural management and with particular regard to the disease control in crops. Concepts of intensive agriculture, sustainable agriculture, organic agriculture, subsistence agriculture, market agriculture, "biodynamic agriculture" (0.25 CFU).