Grazie Mille

Goodbyes are always bittersweet, and this one was no different. On our final day at the IZS we gave an important feedback presentation to the IZS researchers and said our farewells to the incredible team in Teramo. As a group, we discussed areas of improvement for future trips, as well as ways to more familiarize …

Day 12: Disaster response and Canine tracking in Italy

On the second to last day of our Public Health and Animal Welfare course at the IZS, we were lucky enough to have our afternoon lectures in the beautiful brown stone tower on the beach in Pineto.Our first lecturer was Paolo Dalla Villa, who spoke about the issue of stray dog and cat population control …

Day 11 continued. CALLISTO and other studies

At the IZS’s beautiful CIFIV we had a series of lectures about research concerning companion animals (dogs and cats) within Italy and the European Union. One of their more extensive projects that we learned about was CALLISTO, which focused on zoonoses between human and companion animals. CALLISTO is an acronym for Companion Animals Multisectorial Interprofessional …

Day 10 & 11 Shelter Medicine in Italy

Wednesday and Thursday of this week immersed us into the world of shelter medicine and small animal welfare in Italy. Some of the most glaring differences we discovered during our time at the Istituto have to do with shelter medicine. In 1991, new legislation was introduced in Italy that outlawed euthanizing stray animals except in …

Day 8 & 9 : Food Security and Challenge testing

The past two days have focused on food security and processing.  On Monday we spent our day in the classroom learning about the different types of laboratories in Europe, including but not limited to the European Reference lab, the National Reference labs, and the Official labs.  Each lab has a different level of authority involved …

Day 7: Beach Day at Pineto

On Sunday, two of our instructors from the IZS, Stefano Messori and Diego Magnani, invited us to spend a day at the beach in their home town of Pineto. We arrived shortly after 10 am to cloudy skies, and, hoping that the sun would emerge soon, decided to have breakfast at a local cafe. When …

Day 6: Wild Italy

Today we visited the Majella National Park, located in the Appenine mountains, in hopes to learn a little about wildlife management in Italy. The park covers about 740 square kilometers and focuses on wildlife conservation and management of a variety of animals, including the Appenine wolf, the Marsican brown bear (a subspecies of the European …

Day 5: All about Buffalo

Today we had the opportunity to visit a dairy buffalo farm in Torcino, a town located in the Caserta Province.  Fifteen years ago, the farm began operations with 160 buffalo.  Since then, the farm has grown to have 1,200 buffalo and has been maintained as a closed herd.   To expand the herd, natural breeding is …

Day 4: Keeping Animals Healthy and Happy during Livestock Transportation

Livestock Transport After a bumpy bus ride up into the surrounding mountains, we arrived at our intended destination: an assembly center for sheep where we would watch the unloading process of transport of animals coming from extended travel. The owner of an assembly center buys livestock from multiple transporters, keeps them on the premesis for …

Day 3: Formaggio Italiano

Farindola Pecorino Cheese Farm We traveled to Farindola, a small town on the Italian hillside, where we spent some time at a self-sufficient Pecorino Cheese farm. We were greeted by one of the cheese-making women who worked on the farm. She showed us the various awards the farm had earned and we learned that this …