Comparative Animal Nutrition and Nutritional Evaluation of Feedingstuff

Objective of the course is to teach Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology. These topics are necessary pillars to study nutrient requirements, ration and feed formulation during the third year of the course. This approach will allow students to understand the role of animal nutrition in improving animal health. Basic animal nutrition, feed characteristics, availability, safety and economics, feed technology, will be taught through frontal lectures and practical work.

1. Knowledge and understanding: at the end of the course, the student will have to demonstrate knowledge of the basics of animal nutrition, the characteristics, availability and economic convenience of foods, and the basic methods of industrial production of feed.
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding: the student will have to demonstrate that they possess useful knowledge and concepts in order to tackle, in the third year of the course, the study of nutritional needs, rationing and feed formulation.
3. Critical thinking and judgment skills: the student must demonstrate the ability to critically argue the acquired information. Specific practical activities in classroom and laboratory are aimed at this purpose (e.g. interpretation and qualitative evaluation of animal feed starting from the information reported on the label, exercises on nutritional evaluation of foods or "label analysis", physical quality analysis of feed in the form of extruded pellets, analysis of proteins of animal origin in feed).
4. Communication skills: students must demonstrate the ability to express themselves with appropriate scientific terminology during lectures, practical exercises, and the exam. The exercises are intended to foster the ability to express themselves correctly and to engage in scientific discussions with peers.
5. Ability to pursue lifelong learning independently: the student will have to demonstrate the ability to use the knowledge acquired to critically evaluate the information relating to the nutritional composition of foods intended for the formulation of animal diets, as well as knowing the regulatory bases relating to the sampling and analysis of the same with focus also on the presence of contaminants, with the help of available sources of knowledge and good mental organization.