The Department focuses mainly on the breeding and protection of native animal species and their reproduction, and ethology of domestic and wild animals, whereas in the center of our interest lies the protection and research of wild ungulates. Our activities, however, reach over to other areas such as animal breeding and improvement of properties of livestock breeds, animal nutrition and dietetics, animal hygiene, disease prevention and animal welfare, and processing of agricultural products in relation to food safety and hygiene.
The history of the department dates back to 1967 when it was called the Department of Animal Production in Tropics and Subtropics. It was established as one of the three departments of the Institute of Tropical and Subtropical Agriculture. In 2013 was established the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences (FTA) as we know it today. In 2020 the whole Faculty was moved to a new building, next to the FTA greenhouses where you can find all our employees.
The Department hosts the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, the Laboratory for Detection and Characterization of Pathogens, and the Laboratory of Animal Science. Laboratory of Molecular Genetics focuses mainly on interspecies interactions, conflicts of domesticated and wild species of animals, and the population structure of mammals. Laboratory for the detection of pathogens focuses mainly on the detection of pathogens in different biological materials of animal origin. Laboratory of Animal Science focuses mainly on analyses of biological materials using simple and economically feasible techniques, which may be used even in regions of developing countries.
The Department leads the management of farm breeding of Common Eland (Taurotragus oryx) and Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) at the School farm of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Lány and since 2000 leads the projects focused on the protection and conservation of critically endangered Western Derby Eland (Taurotragus derbianus derbianus) in Senegal through Derbianus Conservation Program based at our Department.
The scientific focus of our Department is realized mainly through scientific grants and student scientific projects with the goal of publishing the results in scientific journals with IF (impact factor). For the research, the Department uses not only the laboratories present in the FTA building, but also its farm-bred animals in which is a long-term research task of "Evaluation of farm breeding of Common Eland and Guanaco for commercial use in the Czech Republic". Other research tasks are being solved in cooperation with ZOOs and agricultural companies. A big part of the Department´s scientific work lies also in natural reservations and parks in Africa and Mongolia, where several scientific projects are realized focused on Derby Eland, Pangolins, Przewalski horses, and many other animal species.
