In spite of the fact that the Degree Course in Veterinary Medicine was only funded in 1992, its teaching goes back centuries. In fact, the very first Chair of Agriculture was established in 1765 and assigned to botanist Pietro Arduino, who was responsible, among other things, for investigating the reasons for insufficient cattle production. At that time, the Republic of Venice, which included Padova, was importing large quantities of livestock from Eastern countries (mainly Dalmatia, Slovenia and Hungary), and the high animal mortality rate caused by unhealthy local farming conditions had led to financial and public health concerns. During the second half of the eighteenth century, following the establishment of schools of animal medicine all over the continent, veterinary sciences started to become increasingly important in Europe. The majority of these schools were created to address the strong need to provide medical care to army horses. However, although cavalry was extremely important for the Republic of Venice, the teaching of veterinary medicine in Padova was established with a slightly different purpose, that is, studying the epidemiology of infectious diseases of cattle in order to foster the commerce and economy of the region. In September 1773, just a few years after the establishment of the first two schools of veterinary medicine in France (Lyon and Alfort), the Republic of Venice officially founded the Collegium Zooiatricum Patavinum (Zooiatric College), which was located in an old convent in Padova and was under the supervision of Giuseppe Orus, a graduate of Alfort. In addition to being responsible for the organisation of the school, Orus acted as an official meat and hygiene inspector for the Republic of Venice, travelling to any area where cattle disease outbreaks were reported. On 1st October 1774, the first twelve students enrolled in the school, and by 1779 they had gained their degree. In the following years (1779-1787), the veterinary curriculum became part of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, and the Chair of Comparative Anatomy of Giuseppe Orus was included among those of the University of Padova (UniPD). After the fall of the Republic of Venice in 1797, the veterinary curriculum offered at UniPD continued to remain active for many years, under the supervision of different professors, including Antonio Rinaldini (1805), Girolamo Molin (1815), Vincenzo Tomada (1839), Giuseppe Brugnolo (1840) and Bernardino Panizza (1857). This latter was the last professor to teach veterinary medicine as the curriculum was discontinued in 1873 as a result of compliance with the regulations introduced by the newly established Kingdom of Italy (1860). After that, the Academic Senate of the University of Padova had considered re-opening the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine on several occasions as animal farming (including fish farming) was routinely exploited in the Veneto and Friuli regions, with local veterinarians having to be trained either at the university of Milan or Bologna. However, it was only in 1992 that the Academic Senate of UniPD decided to re-establish the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, thanks to the right combination of prosperity, economic expansion and increasing need for professionals in the veterinary medicine and public health fields that North-Eastern Italy was experiencing in those years.