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UH is the oldest and largest institution of public academic education in Finland, an international scientific community of 40,000 students and researchers. The University’s core duties are research, teaching and their support through community relations. The University of Helsinki employs approximately 7600 people of which 60% are teachers and researchers. Within UH, the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is responsible for the basic education of veterinary surgeons in Finland as well as for research, postgraduate research education, postgraduate professional education and continuing education. The Department of Food Hygiene and Environmental Health in the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine provides teaching and research in following subjects: food hygiene and control, environmental health and toxicology, meat inspection and slaughterhouse hygiene. Research is also conducted on safe and sustainable meat chain and zoonotic antimicrobial resistance.
Research on environmental health care control complements research in molecular biology well. Together, they make up a strong area of expertise in food and environmental hygiene. One important focus area at the Department is research in functional genomics, which enables, for example, recognition of genes responsible for cold tolerance in bacteria. The Department has been coordinating a European network for a research project co-financed by the EFSA (www.innuendoweb.org), aiming to establish a standardised, user-centered designed, end-to-end analytical platform committed to guarantee to public health stakeholders access to the disruptive and strategic approach of applying genomics for surveillance of food-borne diseases.