The Museum of Veterinary Medicine is among the youngest museums of the University of Padua. Its history begins in the mid-90s, with the creation of a collection dedicated to veterinary medicine. The Museum was officially established in 2001, within what was the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (today the Single Cycle Master’s Degree Course in Veterinary Medicine), thanks to close collaboration between the faculty, the University Center for Museums (CAM), and the University of Padua. The idea and realization of the Museum are due to Prof. Bruno Cozzi, professor of Veterinary Anatomy at the University starting from the academic year 1998/99.
The Museum is not only a cultural project but also meets the requirements of the EAEVE (European Association of Establishments for Veterinary Education) necessary for the accreditation of the Degree Course in Veterinary Medicine. In the early 2000s, thanks to a significant investment, the museum furnishings were set up.
Furnishings included:
- Shatterproof glass cases for displaying museum preparations.
- Two open double-door cabinets with osteological specimens are available to students for consultation in the study room.
- Steel and glass cabinets with skulls and jars containing mammalian brains.
- Consultation tables to facilitate the study and exploration of museum specimens.
In 2016, the Museum was enriched with three new display cases from the Botanical Garden of Padua, which thus allowed to increase the exhibition surface and host some of the most precious specimens of the collections. The same year, due to the continuous increase in collections and at the same time limited space, most of the specimens were transferred to a storage facility in Agripolis. In this room, the specimens are stored in special boxes acquired between 2015 and 2017, thanks to funds from CAM and the Department.
Today the Museum is part of the Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Nutrition (BCA) and plays a fundamental role in teaching for students of the Agripolis Campus. Increasingly, the Museum is becoming a point of reference for schools, researchers, enthusiasts, and curious people, contributing to the dissemination of veterinary medicine and knowledge of the animal world.