Special Session 16

The global request of animal derived food will double up till 2050, for both the increase of population and the worldwide standard of living. However, the livestock sector is one of the most vulnerable sectors with regard to climate change, and also one of the most demanding in terms of resource needs (water, feed, energy, etc.). Therefore, a multidisciplinary approach and advanced strategies are needed to counteract the challenge of climate change in livestock systems. This may be reached through the application of novel technologies developed in the IoT environment, machine learning and artificial intelligence applied to collection and management of complex data sources, in order to implement prediction and mitigation approaches.

Nicola Lacetera
joined the University of Tuscia (Viterbo, Italy) in 1990 as assistant professor at Institute of Animal Science. Currently he is full professor at the Department of Agriculture and Forest Sciences in the same University. Before joining the University of Tuscia, Prof. Lacetera graduated in Veterinary medicine at the University of Perugia (Italy). He was visiting professor at Caldwell Animal Hospital (NC, USA, 1986), Department of Microbiology at Colorado State University (CO, USA, 1988-1989), Department of Animal Health and Husbandry at University of Bristol (UK, 1994 and 1995), Laboratoire Associé de Recherches sur les Lentivirus chez le Petits Ruminants at the Ecole Vétérinaire of Lion (France, 1997), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization at Brisbane, Australia (2015 and 2016). His main areas of research are the interactions between metabolism, immune response and health in dairy ruminants and the effects of heat stress on physiology, health and performance of dairy cows. Immunology, disease resistance and risk of death are the main topics of his research in the field of animal biometeorology. Prof. Lacetera is co-author of more than 200 publications.

Danilo Ercolini
è professore ordinario di Microbiologia dal 2015, è Direttore del Dipartimento di Agraria dell'Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Direttore Scientifico della Fondazione Agritech e Responsabile Scientifico della Task Force di Ateneo per gli Studi sul Microbioma. Da sempre impegnato in studi di ecologia microbica negli alimenti e nell'uomo, è autore di più di 180 pubblicazioni su riviste internazionali che hanno attratto >15.000 citazioni con un H-index pari a 70.

Gianluca Neglia
(DVM, PhD) is full professor in the Scientific Disciplinary Sector “AGR/19 – Animal Husbandry” at the Department of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Production of the Federico II University, where he carries out didactic and research activities. His scientific interests are focused on the breeding techniques and reproductive biotechnologies of livestock (buffalo, bovine, goat sheep), the quality of the animal derived foods and the application of precision livestock farming techniques. He has been scientific Coordinator of several national and international research projects and research agreements and consultancies with public and private companies. His scientific activity is summarized in more than 300 publications in national and international conferences and published in scientific journals indexed with impact factor. He is also Coordinator of the Master Degree in Precision Livestock Farming (LM-86) of the Federico II University and member of the Board of the Association of Animal Production (ASPA). He has been invited several times as a speaker in national and international conferences.