Our Department

The Department of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Sassari, formerly known as the "Faculty of Veterinary Medicine", has a long history and remains the only veterinary medicine department in Sardinia.

Since its establishment, the Department has maintained strong ties with Sardinia’s livestock farming traditions and production systems, reflecting the importance of animal farming to the island’s economy and identity.

Established in 1928 as the Royal Higher Institute of Veterinary Medicine, the Department awarded its first degrees in 1932.

It became a Faculty in 1934 and was initially located in Sassari city centre. Construction of the current complex began in 1972 and was completed in 1982.

The Department of Veterinary Medicine is set within a large green area available to students, on a campus well served by public transport and just a few minutes’ walk from Sassari city centre.

A wide range of services can also be found nearby, including supermarkets, a post office, banks, pharmacies, cafés and other food outlets. The Department also provides extensive parking facilities for students and staff.

The complex consists of five interconnected buildings covering approximately 9,500 square metres and includes:

• teaching rooms dedicated to each year of the degree programme;
• fully equipped laboratories;
• a dissection and necropsy room;
• a microscopy room;
• a computer room;
• small-scale teaching dairy and meat-processing facilities.

The Veterinary Teaching Hospital is located on the same campus, next to the teaching facilities, and is specifically designed to support student training and small-group teaching.

Covering approximately 960 square metres of indoor and outdoor space, the Veterinary Teaching Hospital features modern clinical facilities, including consultation and operating rooms for both small and large animals, where students can undertake practical training in small groups.

It is also equipped with advanced diagnostic technology, including CT (Computed Tomography), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and a modern Radiology Unit.

The campus also provides a range of facilities for practical training, located close to the teaching rooms. These include animal housing facilities for both farm and companion animals, as well as grazing paddocks used for field-based teaching activities, covering a total area of more than two hectares.

The Department also carries out practical teaching activities at external partner facilities, including livestock farms and food-processing companies.

Renovation work is currently being completed at the Department’s Teaching Farm, located approximately eighteen kilometres from the main campus in La Crucca.

The Department of Veterinary Medicine works across a broad range of complex and interconnected areas, including animal health and veterinary care, veterinary public health, food safety, the quality of animal production, animal welfare, wildlife biology and management, animal biotechnology, and human–animal interactions.

Its teaching and research activities also address the changing role and perception of animals in society, the principles of veterinary bioethics and the One Health approach, recognising the close interconnection between human, animal and environmental health.