Provision of knowledge in the field of animal husbandry, livestock production in relation to the environment, man, his health and food. The acquisition of basic knowledge of Animal Husbandry, scientific production terms for all productive animals, understanding of the modern requirements of the national and international market in the field of animal production, future trends and primary production systems that lead to production standards with distinct quality characteristics. Also, the course aims to acquire students’ knowledge on modern, scientifically managed farm animal breeding in order to produce safe and superior quality animal products. The course material aims to understand all forms of productive exploitation of farm animals with a combination of high standards of productive and reproductive management of farming, as well as modern conditions of housing and equipment. The course concerns the understanding of the social and economic importance of animal production, the other and complementary branch of Agriculture and analyzes:

• The benefits of farming farm animals for humans.
• The efficiency of animal production in relation to crop production.
• The contribution of animal production to solving the global food problem.

Gives:

• Data on world livestock and production.
• General Zootechnicks

COURSE OUTLINE

• Data from Animal Production in Greece.
• Shows:
• Trends in the future development of animal production.

Analyzes:

• The origin, domestication and evolution of farm animals.
• The changes that farm animals underwent during the course of domestication
• -The classification of farm animals into breeds.
• The main breeds of cattle, sheep, goats and pigs.
• The importance of preserving rare breeds.
• The intake and digestion of food.
• Metabolism (energy and nutrients).
• The animals’ needs for energy, nitrogenous substances, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients.
• The biological value of the proteins of the diet.

Upon successful completion of the course the student will have the skills to:

• Understand that preventive hygiene, nutrition, welfare, biosecurity, environmentally friendly zootechnical regulations, preventive and active hygiene and finally issues of processing, quality, safety of animal products constitute an integrated approach to knowledge of animal production.
• Correlate the theoretical and practical background of his/her knowledge in Anatomy, Genetics, Physiology, Reproduction and Nutrition with the objectives of animal production and consumer demands.
• Know ways of managing farm animals in modern production systems.
• To assess the current situation using the acquired knowledge and skills regarding the animal production sector and its prospects, both in Greece and globally and to propose any interventions for the further and strengthening of the production of animal products in the wider field of animal production