Environmental contaminants in farm and wild animals: A) effects on animal health status, in particular, immune and endocrine systems; B) characterization of the risk for the consumers.
he objectives of the project are:
To assess the presence of environmental contaminants in wild and farm animal tissues, aimed to characterize the risk for the consumer of meat of different origins and, meanwhile, to check the functionality ofmonitoring environmental pollutionthrough control ofgame animals used as sentinels.
To understand the in vitro effects of environmental pollutants on cells derived from the immune system.
To achieve these objectives, samples of different organs and tissues will be collected from the carcasses of wild animals shot during hunting activities and from domestic animals from grazing and non-grazing farms.
To obtain samples from animals that share the range of life, eventually the feed, and therefore may be subject to the same environmental contaminants, a particular Apennine area was considered where a well-structured hunting activity and both grazing and non-grazing farms there are. All samples will be collected during routine slaughtering procedures. The presence and the quantity of Persistent, Bioaccumulative, Toxic substances (PBTs) will be determined using LC-MS/MS and GC-MS/MS.
Secondly, we will evaluatethe toxic effects on immune cell cultures from wild and domestic animals. Different concentrations, substances, and associations of substances will be used to treat cell culture, and the effects on viability and cytokines production will be evaluatedthrough molecular biology approaches.
Susanna Draghi obtained her Bachelor’s degree in animal breeding and welfare at the University of Milan (UNIMI) with a thesis on the parasitology of roe deer in the Oltrepo Pavese area.
Then she continued her studies in Veterinary Biotechnological Sciences. After an internship at the immunology laboratory, she obtained her Master’s degree in Veterinary Biotechnological Sciences with a thesis entitled “Characterization of bacterial microbiota composition along the gastrointestinal tract in rabbits and its changes under a goji supplementation feeding regimen” with the evaluation of 110/110 cum laude.
Her main interests are immunology, immuno-toxicology, and ecotoxicology.
Publications: Orcid ; Scopus ; IRIS-AIR
Supervisor Prof. Petra Cagnardi Pico’
Co-supervisor Prof. Federica Riva ; Prof. Francesco Arioli
