Masters course
Master's Program in Animal and Food Hygiene
In Japan as well as in many other countries in the world, the safety of food of animal origin (animals, milks, meats, etc.) has become an increasingly important issue in order to compete and survive in international free trade. In this program the practical education and research focuses on training students to be advanced specialists so they can work at the international level to enhance the safety of foods. This program will become one of the best in the world in the food hygiene field because it is supported and conducted by the research staff of the 21st Century COE program in Japan. The aim of this program is to address all the health management aspects of the production, processing and transportation of foods of animal origin. Therefore, this program has been designed to train students graduates from the departments of agriculture and animal husbandry, as future specialists in the field of “food safety,” so they have excellent research capabilities and enlightened opinions. To do accomplish this they are provided complementary knowledge from the viewpoint of the public health aspects of conventional veterinary medicine and the latest information on the production of foods and agricultural and animal husbandry products.
Laboratory of Animal Medical Science
We teach technical development and theories for raising and breeding healthy livestock and controlling diseases as well as naturally maximizing the potential of healthy animals in order to improve economic efficiency. Furthermore, we examine the interactions between host animals and parasites, such as worms and protozoa that cause infectious diseases. Based on this research, we provide a comprehensive program of animal medical science that includes the diagnoses and treatment of zoonotic protozoan diseases, and the relationship between animal health/disease prevention and the basic functions of nutrition.
Laboratory of Food Hygiene
We provide a comprehensive examination of the potential dangers that exist in the path that food takes from farm to dining table in order to achieve a stable and efficient supply of safe, high quality livestock food products. The instruction and research on food hygiene done by this Laboratory includes:
1. the treatment and prevention of pathogenic microbe contamination, (mainly bacteria and viruses),
2. the management and evaluation of sanitary control systems on farms and at food processing sites,
3. the economic evaluation and design of quarantine systems used in international trade,
4. the development of risk evaluation methods for livestock food products by examining food functions and
5. the pathogenic mechanism of microbes, and the analysis of health dangers related to food.
Laboratory of Environmental Hygiene
We provide comprehensive instruction in environmental hygiene including prevention of diseases by infected vector animals, an international epidemiological study of infectious diseases and the utilization of biomass. Our studies cover the prevention of emerging and re-emerging diseases transmitted by vector animals such as rats, and external parasites like insects and ticks, and epidemiological study of infectious diseases associated with livestock food product hygiene as well as consideration of these diseases from the international point of view including the economic impact and prediction of potential outbreaks. We are also studying the establishment of a recycling system in the agricultural and livestock production system based on energy recycling (carbon) and material recycling (nitrogen) in order to alter the highly energy intensive livestock production system that greatly impacts the environment by disturbing material circulation, polluting water systems and emitting global-warming gases.