2. Fundamental Research for Animal Health and Welfare
We are interested in studying the gut microbiota of animals to fight antibiotic resistance. We already have experience in those fields (antibiotic resistance and gut microbiota) and we would like to further develop our skills and technologies to better monitor animal health and animal welfare. We have in the Laboratory of Bacteriology of the Research and Development Department a Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometer for bacterial identification and a MiSeq instrument for the genomic and metagenomic analysis, which we can use in the project.
The Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Umbria e delle Marche “Togo Rosati” (IZSUM) is a public veterinary Institute operating within the Italian National Health Service, which conducts prevention, control and research activities in the field of animal health and welfare, food safety, and environmental protection.
The Institute was founded in 1936 and the area of competence comprise the Umbria and Marche Regions, situated in central Italy; it is part of a national network comprising nine other Italian public veterinary Institutes, covering the whole Italian territory. The Institute employs almost 350 people, including veterinarians, biologists, chemists, technicians and administrative staff.
The mission of the Institute is to provide, to the National Health System, technical-scientific services and support in the fields of animal health and welfare, hygiene for foodstuffs of animal and plant origin and veterinary issues in public health. The institute supports the official authorities in the definition and implementation of official control plans in animal health and food safety; moreover is the epidemiological observatory for the two regions of competence.
Scientific research is a key sector for IZSUM, which cooperates with several national and international Institutions. The research projects are mainly application-oriented as they focus on the most relevant fields of the ‘One Health’ approach.
The Italian Ministry of Health authorizes the Institute for the production, marketing and distribution of vaccines and diagnostic devices necessary to tackle infectious diseases and for veterinary public health activities.
The Research and Development Department plays an important professional and scientific role in areas of emerging interest. More in detail, the Laboratorio of Batteriologia Speciale is focused on:
- Research projects on emerging infectious diseases in livestock and antibiotic-resistance
- Identification of bacterial strain from animal health and food safety labs using the MALDI-TOF
- Investigation of antibiotic resistance in pathogen bacteria through the whole genome sequencing
- Characterize the intestinal microbiota of animals according to infectious diseases and performing studies using the fecal microbiota tranplantation
- Bacterial collection of the main animal pathogens