Visiting PhD Candidate
(winter 2023 – present)
Home Institution:
University of Turin, Italy
While at the Makagon Lab:
Valentina was a PhD candidate at the University of Turin, Italy, when she visited our lab. Her PhD work focused on the effects of live larvae administration in the chicken diet on growth and slaughter performance, meat quality, microbiome, and welfare of a local and commercial chicken breed. At the time of her visit, she had already contributed to three publications on this topic (Bongiorno et al., 2022a; Bongiorno et al., 2022b; Soglia et al., 2022 ). Valentina joined the lab to gain additional experience in animal behavior and welfare. While at the lab, Valentina led data collection on the precopulatory behaviors of Pekin ducks in commercial farm settings, and assisted on various ongoing projects in the lab. Valentina’s abroad period is funded by the Department of Veterinary Sciences at the University of Turin.
Fun fact: As a child, Valentina was interested to have worms and toads as pets.