Program Overview

School of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine

The School of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine offers a comprehensive program in Animal Care, providing students with a thorough understanding of animal welfare, behavior, and health.

Course Outline and Objectives

The academic offer for the academic year 2025/26 includes courses organized in study plans focused on the care of wild and zoo animals, animals in scientific research, and aquatic animals. The third year's study plan includes 12 elective credits, which must be spent in courses chosen by the student.

Learning Objectives

The program aims to provide students with the following learning objectives:

• Analyze, understand, and apply relevant laws on the welfare of wild and laboratory animals
• Learn and develop skills to understand and discuss the ethical dimensions of animal care and welfare
• Develop essential theoretical and practical knowledge and skills in general and organic chemistry and biochemistry
• Understand the foundation basis of calculus, physics, and data management systems
• Acquire knowledge on control of inbreeding and preservation of genetic variability in small groups of animals
• Describe and identify apparatus and organs of the most common species of wild and laboratory animals

First Year

The first year of the program includes the following courses:

• Bioethics and legislation
• Applied chemistry and biochemistry
• Applied mathematics and physics
• Animal biology and genetics
• Comparative animal anatomy

Second Year

The second year of the program includes the following courses:

• Comparative Animal Physiology
• Behavioral Neuroscience for Animal Care
• Principles of Prevention and Control of Transmissible Animal Diseases
• Animal Husbandry and welfare
• Basics of animal nutrition and feeding
• General concepts of pharmacology
• General pathology and laboratory techniques
• Comparative animal reproduction, neonatology and breeding techniques
• Communication skills

Third Year

The third year of the program includes the following study plans:

Wild and Zoo Animals Study Plan

• Wild and Zoo animal care in clinical settings
• Comparative ecology and ethology
• Wild and Zoo animals' husbandry, management and welfare
• Principle of post mortem technics and tissue sampling

Animals in Scientific Research Study Plan

• Animal husbandry, ethology and welfare in scientific research
• Comparative Pathology
• Animal care in research clinical settings
• Experimental design and statistical analysis in Animal research

Aquatic Animals Study Plan

• Aquatic Animal management, ecology and ethology
• Aquatic Animal care in clinical settings
• Post-mortem investigations and biomolecular techniques applied to aquatic vertebrates
• Experimental design and statistical analysis in animal research

Field Experience

Multidisciplinary field experience, including visits to zoological parks, rehabilitation centers, and research facilities, will be organized during the course of study to introduce students to practical activities. The second semester of the third year will be dedicated to a compulsory practical training, where students will work at affiliated structures under the direct supervision of an expert in animal care.