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This initiative originates from a group of scientists who had the opportunity to collaborate during the EU COST Action FA1308 "DairyCare", and share their interest in developing methods to monitor animal health and farming efficiency with different approaches, and alternative strategies for promoting animal health, preserve the customer's health in an environmentally friendly food system.


Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) technologies in the context of the "European Green Deal".

When an animal has to cope with environmental challenges, one common response is to divert energy away from "non-essential" functions, such as growth, reproduction and production, towards maintaining the animal's internal environment, and this often leads to poor health and reduced productivity.

The farm environment can be very complex, and animal's inability to predict and control such complexity can result in ethological and physiological changes generating a stress. Climate changes can be a real threat to animal health and productivity, if not adequately managed. The continuous validation of existing biomarkers and the discovery and field implementation of new biomarkers will enable us to understand the specific physiological process and regulatory mechanisms used by the organism to adapt to different environmental conditions, to monitor animal health/welfare and improve management and breeding strategies, optimizing animal performances and efficiency.


Effective strategies for improving dairy animal health and welfare, as well as maintaining elevated productivity, require collaboration across specialist and expert skills aiming at:


• Developing and validating new technologies to monitor animals and to detect health/welfare problems at an early stage to allow early intervention measures.


• Integrating data of production, sensors and biomarkers.


• Limiting the use of medications (e.g.: see the problem of antibiotic resistance) and developing alternative strategies to preserve animals' health in the "one-health" approach.


• Providing innovative solutions for animal housing and use of renewable resources related to buildings for animal housing.



• Reducing GHG and ammonia emissions by means of climate smart cattle farming systems.



• Selecting more robust and resilient animals in a longer timeframe by identifying suitable traits to evaluate the animals' phenotype.


Workshop aims

PLF to monitor animal health & welfare and farming efficiency applied to climate changes conforms to the guidelines encompassed in the EU "Green Deal" Strategies:

https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal/actions-being-taken-eu_en

The main topics of the workshop will be animal adaptation to hot environments, as this is recognized as a major problem for both Israeli and Italian farming systems, as well as other Mediterranean countries. However, the workshop aims at identifying other common interests between IL and IT related to PLF technology. In particular, the workshop aims at:



• Discussing the state-of-art and future development of PLF techniques

• Laying the foundation for further cooperation

• Involve in the discussion people from public Institutions and industry.

• Presenting the outcome of a position paper on the common IL-IT view of the role of PLF in the context of European Green Deal Agriculture.


This Webinar

This webinar is intended as a preparatory event for the Workshop that will be held in Israel next June, if emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic will cease. This small size meeting aims to focus on common problems, interests and technologies that IL and IT can share and develop together, and to set the outline of the position paper on the common IL-IT view of the role of PLF in the context of European Green Deal Agriculture.


Speakers

  • Gianluigi Benedetti (Ambassador at Embassy of Italy in Israel)

    Gianluigi Benedetti

    Ambassador at Embassy of Italy in Israel

    Greetings

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  • Andrea Carignani di Novoli (Minister Counsellor, Head of Research & Innovation Section at Delegation of the European Union to Israel)

    Andrea Carignani di Novoli

    Minister Counsellor, Head of Research & Innovation Section at Delegation of the European Union to Israel

    "EU Green Deal Policy"
    08.2019 | present
    Minister Counsellor, Head of Research & Innovation Section of the Delegation of the European Union to the State of Israel
    02.2016 |.08.2019
    Head of Unit " International Cooperation in R&I with European Neighbourhood, Africa and the Gulf"
    Define and implement the international cooperation in R&I with Neighbourhood, Africa and Gulf.
    Elaborate and coordinate the unit long term objectives: increase participation of Neighbourhood, African and countries in H2020; further enhance regional cooperation; promote science diplomacy initiatives; ensure, in collaboration with other services, that H2020 is designed to take into account the strategic cooperation with key EU international partners; foster synergies with other Commission's services such as EEAS, NEAR and DEVCO
    7/2015 - 1/2016
    Head of Unit "ITER Project and Boarder Approach, European Commission,
    DG ENER - D4 - ITER
    7/2012 - 6/2015
    Head of Unit "ITER Project and Boarder Approach"
    Ensure the political, budgetary and scientific oversight of the ITER Project and Broader Approach (BA), in collaboration with the European Joint Undertakings Fusion for Energy (F4E).
    Ensure the Commission's representation and prepare its position in the governance instances such as the ITER Council, F4E Governing Board and its Advisory Committee (MAC, ExCo and AFC) and working groups. Regular interaction with F4E (450 staff), ITER Organisation (550 staff) management and staff
    DG RTD - K5 - ITER
    5/2011 - 6/2012
    Deputy Head "ITER Project and Boarder Approach"
    Support the Head of Unit in steering the implementation of the Commission policy towards the European Joint Undertaking F4E and the ITER Organization. Support the Head of Unit in defining the unit’s overall strategic and specific objectives.
    DG RTD - K5 - ITER
    9/2008 - 4/2011
    Legal officer/Team leader "Administration and finance"
    CAMAR Vice Chair, being the body verifying and approving the award of Commission external actions contracts in accordance with of DG Relex and EU Delegations procurement procedures and rules.
    DG RELEX/FPI
    10/2005 - 8/2008
    Procurement officer/Head of sector "Contract and procurement Department"
    Deal with the preparation of a series of Marie Curie standard contracts (11 different actions). In particular developing contractual provisions related to the temporary employment of the fellows, to the national social security schemes and other related matters.
    1/2002 - 9/2005
    Legal officer/Project officer "Marie Curie Fellowship "
    Participate in setting up F4E's contract and procurement Department being actively involved in the selection of its staff and the developing its procedures.
    DG RTD - Unit Marie Curie Fellowship
    9/1998 - 12/2001
    Lawyer- Solicitor
    Deal with Court cases, legal opinion, reports, debriefing in the field of European law, International law, Competition law, Mergers & Acquisitions and Intellectual Property Rights other related matters.
    Ashurst Morris Crisp Law-firm/Pavia and Ansaldo Law-firm

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  • Gianfranco Gabai (Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science at University of Padova)

    Gianfranco Gabai

    Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science at University of Padova

    Introduction

    Gianfranco Gabai is full professor of Veterinary physiology at the University of Padua, Italy. He is a member of the Editorial board for scientific journal "Research in Veterinary Science” since 2015, and was member of the Scientific Committeè of the Italian Society for Veterinary Sciences between 2015 and 2018. Since 2020, he has been appointed as President of the Italian Society of Veterinary Physiology. His research interests regard the mechanisms mediating the environment effects on animal adaptation. In particular, the focus is on the effects of stress and the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal axis and oxidative stress on reproduction in ruminants. Recently, he acted as Management Committee member in the UE-COST action FA1308, named “DairyCare”, where he led Working Group 1 ”Biomarker-based welfare technologies”.

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  • Gianluca Giorgi (General Directorate for Rural Development of Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies – MiPAAF)

    Gianluca Giorgi

    General Directorate for Rural Development of Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies – MiPAAF

    "Current cooperation between Italy and Israel in agriculture"

    Responsible for the “Task Force International Cooperation” at MiPAAF.
    The working group within the “DISR II – Rural Development” Unit of the MiPAAF is the national
    delegated authority for the management and implementation of the Twinning projects in the field
    of agriculture and, in general, for the organization, management and support to the execution of
    activities related to the institutional cooperation at the national and international level

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  • Marcella Guarino (Department of Environmental Science and Policy at University of Milano)

    Marcella Guarino

    Department of Environmental Science and Policy at University of Milano

    "Precision livestock farming. Overview of current situation"

    Marcella Guarino received his doctorate in Animal husbandry at University of Milan (Italy) in 1996. Since 1992 she has been facing the problem concerning relation between livestock structures and the environment. Formerly she took charge of research projects focusing on the Climatization control in animal husbandry. She has been involved in many researches and on studying committees both at regional and national level.

    In 2000 she got a grant from the National Council of Research (CNR) to develop a research in the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering of University of Minnesota – USA, under the supervision of Prof. Larry D. Jacobson.
    Joining the Department of Veterinary Science and Technology for Food Safety of the University of Milan in a permanent position (researcher (SSD AGR/10 - Rural buildings and landscape) she carried out her scientific activity at the Bioengineering and Environment Laboratory working on researches addressed to environmental problem, air indoor quality, and Precision livestock farming.
    Member of the Board of the Animal science Ph.D. school, and of other committees of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Milan.
    She coordinates a research staff of 5 people and the group research activities concern on the animal welfare in relation to air quality, she was in charge of a national project to monitor PM10, ammonia, methane and nitrose oxide from pig and poultry farms, to implement the national inventory of emissions and the study of environmental control techniques (to abate dusts gases and odors) are being studied for use on farms to increase production and improve the health and safety of the animals and workers.
    She leads a project sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Environment (APAT), to fill the lack of data in the European country on PM10 emission from swine and poultry barns: the study allowed establishing the development of mathematical dynamic models for the emission factor assessment

    To this purpose the research focused the cleaning level of various materials commonly used to build walls and floors by evaluating the colonization and persistence power of some typical bacteria after washing. The experimental activity focused also the relations between type of building (with particular attention to the slurry removal system) and the indoor air quality.

    She is involved in studying the problems connected with innovation technology in livestock farming with reference both to the design aspects of the animal sheds and to their implications on the shed's indoor air quality. Afterwards she deepened the

    aspects connected to environmental impact of livestock farming by studying both gas/dust emissions in atmosphere and the reduction of nitrogen content in farm sludge to be used for agronomic purpose. More recently she was focusing on PLF studying the application of possible innovative solutions for the automatic monitoring of the animal health and welfare conditions in livestock farming.

    With reference to the studies carried out on the innovation technology in livestock farming, the main aspects investigated were the methods to avoid the penetration and development of pathologies, infections and various infestations in pig farming

    She is the author of more than 150 papers both on National and International journals
    She works with several international partners and she is part of an excellence research network within the themes of PLF

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  • Ilan Halachmi (PLF Lab., Institute of Agriculture Engineering at ARO)

    Ilan Halachmi

    PLF Lab., Institute of Agriculture Engineering at ARO

    "PLF heat-stress case studies"

    2001 to date Senior research scientist; A+ grade (2016) Inst.of Agricultural Engineering, A.R.O. Israel
    2002 to date Invited lecturer, Adjunct Professor (2015), Computer Simulation, Dept. of industrial engineering and management, Faculty of Engineering Sciences. Ben-Gurion University.
    1999–2001 Business development and acting Vice President of R&D, Afimilk, Israel
    1999 Ph.D. Agricultural Engineering, Wageningen University, Netherlands.
    1994 -1995 M.Sc. Industrial Engineering and Management, Ben-Gurion University, Israel.
    1989 -1993 B.Sc. Agricultural Engineering, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Haifa, Israel
    1965 - 1989 Farming experience at the family farm
    Selected International EU research projects
    2016-to date EAAP Study Commission on Precision Livestock Farming; President
    2011- 2018 European Committee for Precision Livestock Farming (ECPLF); Member

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  • Pier Paolo Martini (Department of Engineering

    Pier Paolo Martini

    Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari" at University of Modena e Reggio Emilia

    "Improvement of livestock housing, assessment and control of thermal comfort in hot climates"

    Pierpaolo Martini is agronomist engineer, graduated in 1983 at the University of Bologna. He is freelancer. From 1984 to 1993 he attended research on the environmental control and energy saving of livestock housing with University of Bologna.

    From 1990 to 1993 and from 2006 to 2010 he was Adjunct Professor of environmental impact of livestock housing at University of Bologna and Florence.

    He has been involved in agricultural projects in Israel, since 2002, with the Research Center of Animal Production (CRPA) of Reggio Emilia: e.g. treatment of sewage from large livestock housing for pig through centralized depuration to obtain an irrigation water meeting the standards required by Local Authorities and organic matter as fertilizer. This project took into account the priorities of the Israeli Ministry of Environment: protect soil and groundwater from high concentration of nutrients, salts, fats, etc, supply organic matter to the soil aiming to prevent desertification and soil “overcropping”, reduce the estraxtion of water from the water table. The mission of these projects foresees the integration and development of minority communities in the economic and civil bodies of Israel , through partnership with Arab Israelis and, in future, with Palestinians (Notizie Italiane Embassy of Italy, March 2003).

    Scientific speaker at the Italian – Israeli Forum on Environmental technologies, Tel Aviv, Italian Embassy, 14th – 15th October, 2002 (on biological nutrient removal in a Sequential Batch Reactor – SBR, that treats pig slurry).

    He served in the Italian Army, with rank of Major, as Functional Specialist Agronomist at the Task Force CIMIC (Civil Military Cooperation) in the missions “Old Babilonia” in Iraq (Nasiriyah, 2005 and 2006, irrigation and date palm assessment) and “Presidium” in Afghanistan (Herat, 2010, saffron supply for poppy eradication project).

    He coordinated and took part of cooperation projects in Iraq with University of Florence and Italian Foreign Ministry, under supervision of Prof Matteo Barbari: date palm fruits valorization, transformation and conservation, 2006, innovative solar pump system for drip irrigation, 2013, with support of Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari" (DIEF) at University of Modena e Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE).

    He promoted and collaborated on a new Israeli – Italian research proposal between Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Prof Gennady Ziskind) and DIEF - UNIMORE (Prof Alberto Muscio) with support of University of Florence (Prof Matteo Barbari) in the fields of renewable energy and sustainable development: S2UPREMO (Sustainable Solar-reflective Units of green Phase-change and REcyclable Materials from Organic sources), submitted in the framework of Italian-Israeli cooperation (Scientific Track 2020).

    He is a student of mechanical engineering at DIEF – UNIMORE, Aerodynamics Team member of SAE Formula Student, contributing to the victory “over all” at the UK Silverstone race 2019. Currently he is completing his bachelor degree thesis, working under the supervision of Prof Enrico Mattarelli at DIEF – UNIMORE on a project concerning an innovative hybrid power unit for aircraft.

    He is author of more than 40 technical papers also on national and international proceedings of congress and workshop.

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  • Alberto Muscio (Department of Engineering

    Alberto Muscio

    Department of Engineering "Enzo Ferrari" at University of Modena e Reggio Emilia

    "The human as a reference for assessment of livestock thermal comfort"

    Alberto Muscio is associate professor of Thermal Fluids (Applied Physics) at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. His research interests are in the fields of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, development and testing of materials relevant to energy efficiency, HVAC systems, thermal control of industrial systems. He is responsible for the Energy Efficiency Laboratory (EELab), an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory for testing and certification of building materials relevant to building energy efficiency, with a specific focus on materials and solution to counter building overheating and the urban heat island (UHI) effect. He is also Coordinator of the PhD Course "Enzo Ferrari" in Industrial and Environmental Engineering, member of the editorial board of Energy and Buildings, and member of the editorial board of Advances in Building Energy Research. He is also a member of the Italian Union for Thermo Fluid Dynamics (UIT), the Italian Association for Thermophysical Properties (AIPT, President from 2010 to 2016), the Italian Association for Energy Management (AIGE). In 2013-2015 he was Leading Scientist of the MAIN Project, funded by the MED Programme of the EU and focused on materials and solutions to counter urban heat island, in 2014 Co-Chairman of the 3rd Int. Conf. on Countermeasures to UHI, and he has been appointed chairman of the 22nd European Conference on Thermophysical Properties.

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  • Paolo Pasquali (Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health at Istituto Superiore di Sanità)

    Paolo Pasquali

    Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health at Istituto Superiore di Sanità

    "Heat stress and animal health: One health considerations"

    Paolo Pasquali is leading a research Unit. His main area of interest is the impact of infectious diseases of zoonotic importance on public health. On that account, he had been involved in an extensive activity concerning research, regulatory issues and consultancy (see delailed description in annex)

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  • Paola Roncada (Department of Health Sciences at Università Magna Graecia di Catanzaro)

    Paola Roncada

    Department of Health Sciences at Università Magna Graecia di Catanzaro

    "The contribution of proteomics to animal production"

    Paola Roncada graduated in 1995 at the University of Milan in Medicinal Chemistry and then she got PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Sassari in 2001. From 2002 to 2017 she was in charge as Head of the Proteomics Laboratory at the Istituto Sperimentale Italiano Lazzaro Spallanzani, and she founded a start-up at the Science and Technology Park of Sardinia in 2006. She is currently associate professor of microbiology and animal infectious diseases at the Magna Grecia University of Catanzaro, where she is teaching courses in biotechnology applied to animal production. Since 2019 She is the president of the Italian Proteomics Association, and from 2010 to 2015 she was elected treasurer in the same association. She is currently Executive Editor of Journal of Proteomics- Food Science and Nutrition section, she is in the Editorial Board of One Health Journal. Moreover, she is in the Council of Human Proteome Organization since 2015.

    Contribution to Science. The results of her research activity are mainly focused in the field of public health and One-Health approach. She is author or co-author of more than two hundred works, including communications to national and international congresses. Over the years, she has been mainly dedicated to studies of proteomics, a discipline that she applied to the study of microorganisms in the veterinary public health sector, using advanced molecular methodologies to the etiopathogenetic and diagnostic study of diseases of medical-veterinary interest, even in animal models. She also applied proteomics by investigating phenotypic adaptations of microbial consortia in complex matrices, both animal and food of animal origin. She used these approaches in the field of veterinary reproduction and animal production, in the field of allergens and on animal models of diseases. She was involved in different international and national projects, as ERA NET, EU Projects, and COST ACTIONS. (H-index 27 Google scholar, oct 2020 )

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  • Stefano Ventura (Addetto Scientifico, Ambasciata Italiana in Israele)

    Stefano Ventura

    Addetto Scientifico, Ambasciata Italiana in Israele

    "IT-IL collaboration opportunities"

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  • Maya Zachut (Institute of Animal Science at ARO)

    Maya Zachut

    Institute of Animal Science at ARO

    "Animal pathophysiology and biomarkers of heat stress in dairy cows"

    Maya Zachut is a researcher at the Department of Ruminant Science, Institute of Animal Science, ARO Volcani Center, Israel. She received her MSc and PhD in Animal and Veterinary Science from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University, Israel, on the effects of dietary fatty acids on reproduction of dairy cows. Her postdoctoral training was in collaboration with Weizmann Institute of Science and Volcani Center, on the molecular mechanism of insulin resistance in peripartum cows. Since 2014 Dr. Zachut is a research scientist at Volcani Center. Her research focuses on stress physiology in dairy cows, specifically the interactions between heat stress and metabolic stress, utilizing proteomic analysis of adipose and other tissues to examine biomarkers of physiology, inflammation and the endocannbinoid system in order to define novel biomarkers of heat and metabolic stress, and develop strategies to improve the stress response in high yielding dairy cows.

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Agenda

10:00 AM - 10:10 AM
10:10 AM - 10:15 AM
Introduction
10:15 AM - 10:27 AM
WG1
Precision livestock farming. Overview of current situation
10:27 AM - 10:40 AM
WG1
PLF heat-stress case studies
10:40 AM - 11:00 AM
WG2
Animal pathophysiology and biomarkers of heat stress in dairy cows
11:00 AM - 11:20 AM
WG3
Improvement of livestock housing, assessment and control of thermal comfort in hot climates
11:20 AM - 11:25 AM
Programmed Participations
IT-IL collaboration opportunities
11:25 AM - 11:30 AM
Programmed Participations
EU Green Deal Policy
11:30 AM - 11:35 AM
Programmed participations
Current cooperation between Italy and Israel in agriculture
11:35 AM - 11:40 AM
Programmed Participations
Heat stress and animal health: One health considerations
11:40 AM - 11:45 AM
Programmed Participation
The human as a reference for assessment of livestock thermal comfort
11:45 AM - 11:50 AM
Programmed Participation
The contribution of proteomics to animal production
11:55 AM - 12:20 PM
Discussion
12:20 PM - 12:30 PM
Closing Remarks

Presentations

Martini_Barbari_Rossi;_Muscio Embassy_Israel_TLV_IL_IT_Chamber_Commerce_PLF_Heat_Stress_webinar_WG3__Barbari_Rossi_Nov_9_2020.pdfdownload
Gabai_Webinar 9-11-2020_Introduction.pdfdownload
Marcella Guarino-presentation.pdfdownload
WG2 Zachut Maya.pdfdownload
Webinar on PLF_MiPAAF_GIORGI_09Nov2020.pdfdownload
Alberto Muscio.pdfdownload

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