State and perspectives of national and international animal research

Abstract

Quantitative aspects and the future of Animal Sciences are reported, resulting form a survey of National and EU documents and from personal evaluations of selcted scientists. In the University for animal sciences 395 units are emplyed, 226 in Faculties of Agriculture, 161 in Faculties of Veterinary Sciences and 8 in other Faculties. Approzimately other 165 units are involved in animal research in public or private boards. In practice, nearly 70% of the researchers in Animal Sciences in Italy are in Universities. Several funding sources are available to Animal Sciences, while not all of them are specifically addressing the specific issues. On the whole the percentage of funding is quite low, e.g. only 1.4% of the total PRIN funding is granted to Animal Sciences. The scientific produciton of Italian animal scientists is comparable with Europena one......

Keywords

• Animal research, Animal scientists, Funds for animal research