JACOPO BACENETTI

Associate Professor from 2022 at the Department of Environmental and Policy Science of the University of Milan. His main research topic is the energetic and environmental impact assessment of agricultural and agro-food systems. This evaluation is carried out using both commercial software for environmental analysis (e.g., Simapro®, Gabi) and developing specific tools. In the last 15 years, it has published about 140 scientific manuscripts focused on the environmental assessment of agro-food productions and biomass-to-energy processes. He is Associate Editor of “Science of the Total Environment” and “Cleaner Environmental Systems”.

Lecture
“Weaknesses, limits, biases and strengths of LCA applied to livestock systems”

Ivo Zoccarato

DVM, formerly full professor of Zoocolture. Author or co-author of more than 250 articles.
Passionate of history of veterinary medicine and farriery, after the retirement he wrote more than 50 papers focusing on these topics. Member of ASPA and Academy of Agriculture of Turin. He is one of the founder of the Italian Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine and Farriery (A.I.S.Me.Ve.M.). He has been member of the organizing committee of international (35th and 46th World Association History Veterinary Medicine congress and of The Military Veterinary Services of the fighting Nations in World War One) and national congresses (1st , 2nd and 3rd of A.I.S.Me.Ve.M.). In 2024, during the 3rd Congress held in Bologna, he was awarded with “Antonio Zanon prize” for his commitment to the History of Veterinary Medicine.

Lecture
“From “necessary evil” to “FeedEconomy” how livestock production has changed from the 19th century to date”

Andrea Rosati

Andrea Rosati is a distinguished expert in animal science, with a career spanning over three decades in European and global organisations. He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Perugia, followed by a Master’s in Animal Genetics and a PhD in Biometry and Animal Genetics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Early in his career, he worked at the Italian Animal Breeders Organisation (AIA), managing national animal performance recordings and genetic evaluations. He also held academic positions, teaching statistics at the universities of Bologna and Camerino.
Rosati has held significant leadership roles, including General Manager of the European Federation of Animal Science (EAAP), the World Association for Animal Production (WAAP), and the International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR). At ICAR, he oversaw global standards for animal identification, performance recording, and genetic evaluations. He has also coordinated 2 EU-funded research projects and participated in over 20 others, delivering lectures in more than 40 countries on animal production, sustainability, and agricultural development.
A prolific contributor to scientific literature, Rosati co-founded four international scientific journals, authored numerous articles, and co-authored two books. His daily responsibilities include organising international conferences, webinars, and workshops, managing scientific publications, and promoting animal science dissemination. He is also a strong advocate for agricultural research within EU institutions and a consultant focused on enhancing efficiency in large-scale animal farming. Rosati’s global perspective on the livestock industry, extensive network of experts, and expertise in agricultural innovation make him a sought-after lecturer and strategic advisor. His scientific background and leadership roles uniquely position him to drive advancements in the sector, with a focus on future technologies and sustainable development.

Lecture
“Guiding principles of AI: application in animal husbandry”

Christian Greco

Christian Greco is the Director of Museo Egizio since 2014. He is responsible for the projects of renovation and reorganization of the exhibition path of 2014-2015 and 2023-2025. He supervises the legal and financial aspects of the Museum and all the scientific activities. As Director, he promoted several temporary and travelling exhibitions, the organization of conferences and workshops, projects of social inclusion, as well as national and international collaborations with museums, universities and research institutes.
Born in Italy, he obtained an MA in Classical Literature from Pavia University (Italy), another in Egyptology from Leiden University (The Netherlands) and a PhD from Pisa University (Italy). Before taking up the position of Director of Museo Egizio, he was curator of the Egyptian section of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden of Leiden (The Netherlands) and member of the Epigraphic Survey of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in Luxor (Egypt). Since 2011 he is Co-director of the joint Dutch-Italian mission to Saqqara (Egypt). He serves as a member of the scientific committees of several national and international museums and research institutions, among which the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Napoli (MANN) and the Fondazione Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali (Italy). He is a member of the Accademia Olimpica di Vicenza and Advisor for the Ministry of the Antiquities and Tourism for the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo (Egypt). Between 2019 and 2022 he led the consortium made of Museo Egizio (Italy), Musée du Louvre (France), British Museum (UK), Neues Museum (Germany), Rijksmuseum van Oudheden of Leiden (The Netherlands) for the EU-funded project ‘Transforming the Egyptian Museum of Cairo’.
He is the author of over 90 scientific publications and was keynote speaker in several national and international conferences. In parallel to his engagement as professor of Egyptology and Museum Studies in Italy and the Emirates, he delivers a significant amount of public lectures dedicated to the dissemination of knowledge. He received several prizes and awards, among which Best Director of an Italian Museum by Artribune both in 2019 and 2022, Torinese dell’anno 2023 and Premio Ghislieri 2014. In 2021 he was invited speaker to the opening ceremony of the G20 of Culture in Roma. He is currently Honorary Consul of the Netherlands in Italy.

Lecture
“Memory is our future”

Carol Barragan Fonseca

Veterinarian with expertise in wildlife teaching, research, and management, focusing on conservation and sustainable use. Founder of the Terrestrial Arthropod Research Center (CINAT) and EntoPro, a spin-off of Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL). Associate Professor and coordinator of the Insects for Peace initiative, promoting agrifood sustainability. Active in international cooperation as part of UNAL’s diplomatic scientists group and coordinator of ALPA’s Insect Network. Experienced in interdisciplinary fieldwork and consulting for NGOs and government. Holds a PhD in Production Ecology and Resource Conservation from Wageningen University, with a strong focus on insects’ role in sustainable systems.

Lecture
“Insects for Peace: Transforming Communities Through Black Soldier Fly Farming”

Emma Baxter

Associate Professor at SRUC, Edinburgh specialising in animal behaviour and welfare, with over 20 years of research experience particularly related to integrated pig science. Her main interests include; neonatal survival, developing alternative farrowing and lactation systems, implementing uptake of high welfare systems/practices and mitigating the health and welfare impacts of selection for production traits such as hyper-prolificacy. She works closely with industry with all sectors of the supply chain, providing consultancy and specialising in outreach to translate research into practice.

Lecture
“How to ‘End the Cage Age’ for farrowing sows – updates on research, systems and best practice”

Agustin Blasco

His career focused on litter size components and meat quality genetics in rabbits and pigs. He was president of the World Rabbit Science Association and editor-in-chief of World Rabbit Science. He was Head of the Institute of Animal Science. He has supervised fifteen doctoral theses and published more than 100 articles in Q1 journals. He received the Spanish National Genetics Award and awards from the EAAP and the Spanish AIDA. He was Chapman Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin. He has published “Ethics and Animal Welfare” (Akal), “Bayesian data analysis for animal scientists” (Springer) and “Animal Genetic Improvement” (CABI).

Lecture
“Omics data sets are compositional: the problem and its solution”

Marco Bovo

Associate Professor of Rural Buildings and Agro-Forest Land Planning at the University of Bologna. He is Civil Engineering with a PhD in Structural Engineering and Hydraulics. His main research activities deal with modelling and analysis of environmental parameters in agricultural, livestock and agro-industrial buildings, PLF systems, energy production by renewable sources. He is PI of the ongoing project “One SUStainability vision in Dairy farms: a big Data approach for a perspective Decision-making (SUS3D)”. He is member of the Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering, European Society of Agricultural Engineers, and International Commission of Agricultural Engineering.

Lecture
“Precision Livestock Farming, from theory to practice”

Fabio Brambilla

Fabio Brambilla is currently the R&D Director at VRM Srl Naturalleva (Verona). He graduated in Biological Sciences in 2003 and earned his PhD in aquaculture in 2007. Since 2013, he has been responsible for aquafeed product development and formulation at VRM Srl Naturalleva, specializing in fish nutrition. With extensive experience in fish nutrition and the creation of innovative aquaculture products, he continues to explore new feed solutions for both marine and freshwater species. Since 2024, he has also been overseeing the Next Fish Center, a small-scale RAS system within the VRM group, where new feeds and feeding regimes are evaluated.

Lecture
“Sustainability and aquaculture: responsible change of diets”

Doug Korver

Doug Korver received a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of California, Davis, and joined the University of Alberta in 1997. Prof. Koerver’s research focuses on nutrition-immune function interactions and bone biology in poultry. He has authored over 90 peer-reviewed articles, and 10 book chapters. He is part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s committee to update the 1994 Nutrient Requirements of Poultry. He maintains teaching and research responsibilities as a Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta. Through his consulting company, Alpine Poultry Nutrition, Inc. he communicates the science of poultry nutrition to end users in the poultry industry around the world. 

Lecture
“Impact of oxidation and inflammation on poultry health and productivity”

Chris Knight

Research consultant specialising in lactation and dairying, based in Ayr, Scotland. Ayr was home to the Hannah Research Institute where he spent 27 years as a lactation researcher. In 2006 the Hannah closed, and a year later Chris was appointed Professor of Production Animal Physiology in the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2015 he became Editor in Chief of the Journal of Dairy Research and the following year he returned to Ayr with Emeritus Professor status and with EU COST support for research into dairy animal welfare. His consultancy interests focus on research dissemination and funding.

Lecture
“Progress towards reasonably-precise livestock farming in the dairy sector”

Christian Maltecca

Christian Maltecca is a professor at North Carolina State University specialized in animal genetics and breeding. His research focuses on genetic evaluation methods and bioinformatics applications in livestock. He has been a visiting scientist at CSIRO in Australia, an adjunct faculty member at the University of Guelph and is a member of the Bioinformatic Research Program, the Comparative Medicine Institute, and the Genetics Genomics Academy at the North Carolina State University. He has supervised over 20 doctoral students, postdocs, and masters and published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles. He received the Rockefeller Prentice Award and the J.L. Lush Award in Animal Breeding. He has delivered over 60 invited talks worldwide and has been actively involved in genetic evaluation committees for dairy cattle. He has taught courses on quantitative genetics, linear mixed models, and genetic data analysis in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Lecture
“Elucidating the biology of heat stress in lactating sows at the intersection of genome microbiome and metabolome”

Pier Paolo Mussa

Professor Mussa graduated in Veterinary Medicine. His academic and professional career has been marked by significant contributions to the field of veterinary sciences, particularly in animal nutrition and livestock management. Throughout his career, he has focused extensively on animal feeding, ensuring that his research and teaching bridged the gap between scientific understanding and practical applications in animal care and management. Professor Mussa is the author of over 200 scientific publications, and 20 books, predominantly in the area of animal nutrition. His research has been pivotal in furthering the scientific understanding of how animal diets can influence health, productivity, and sustainability.

Lecture
“Evolution of pet animal nutrition in Italy: scientific, technological and professional aspects”

Nigel D. Scollan

Director of The Institute for Global Food Security and Professor of Agriculture & Sustainability at Queens University, Belfast. Nigel conducted his PhD at The University of Edinburgh, followed by a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Guelph, before joining Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, Aberystwyth in 1993 and subsequently Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) Aberystwyth University in 2008. In 2016, he took up his current post at Queens University Belfast. His research seeks to underpin the development of more sustainable and resilient food supply chains with focus on animal protein. Nigel is a Past President of the British Society of Animal Science and a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society in the UK and a past Director of the Oxford Farming Conference (2017-2020).

Lecture
“New trends in measuring animal product quality linking sustainability and husbandry systems”

Pablo Toral

He is tenured scientist at the Spanish Research Council (CSIC), working at the Institute of Mountain Livestock (IGM) of León (North-western Spain). His area of research is animal nutrition and, more specifically, lipid metabolism in dairy ruminants, with a particular focus on the process of ruminal biohydrogenation and the nutritional regulation of mammary lipogenesis. The final goal of this research is to improve milk fat quality and the environmental and economic sustainability of farms.

Lecture
“Fatty acids beyond milk nutritional quality”

Ingrid Vervuert

Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Leipzig, received her veterinary degree from the Free University of Berlin. Then, went on to complete her doctoral thesis in equine energy metabolism in exercising horses from the University of Hannover and postdoctoral program in starch digestion in horses at the University of Leipzig. Prof. Vervuert’s current research covers forage quality, equine gastric ulcers, obesity management in horses, ponies and donkeys.  Dr. Vervuert is a member of the scientific board of the European workshop on Equine nutrition, a leading conference for equine nutrition in Europe. Prof. Vervuert has greatly contributed to our knowledge of equine nutrition today.

Lecture
“Future challenges and welfare in forage feeding for sport horses”

Isabelle Veissier

Originally trained as a veterinarian, she carried researches on animal behaviour and welfare since 1983. She addressed social behaviour, maternal behaviour, human-animal relationships, learning, emotional capacity, overall assessment of animal welfare, detection of health disorders through changes in activity in ruminant animals. She investigate how farms can provide high animal welfare and be economically and environmentally performant. In parallel, she developed conceptual approach of welfare (regarding stress, emotion, enrichment). She’s committed to transferring knowledge to end-users, policy-makers (e.g. Council of Europe, EU Commission) or farmers (e.g. best practice guides), with a view to reconcile animal welfare and production.

Lecture
“The evolution of the concept of animal welfare: from absence of suffering to positive welfare and beyond”