Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology

Characteristics of the department

The main mission of the department is to provide students of accredited study programs - General Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Food Hygiene, Veterinary Nurse, Feed and Food Safety, and Man-Animal Relationship And Its Use In Canistherapy And Hipotherapy - with quality knowledge in scientific disciplines such as pharmacology and toxicology at the current level of veterinary and pharmaceutical science as well as environmental education. Study programmes are provided in Slovak, and the following study programmes are also provided in English: General Veterinary Medicine, combined study programme Animal Science. The students will be able to apply the acquired theoretical and practical knowledge in their future everyday veterinary and pharmaceutical practice. The department provides not only undergraduate education but also postgraduate education in the form of training courses and study programmes for doctoral study and rigorous study. The scientific research activities of the department focus on studying the effects of drugs, pesticides, and other xenobiotics on human and animal organisms directly as well as through alternative in vitro tests.

In the field of veterinary pharmacology, the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology provides teaching of the compulsory subjects in Slovak – Pharmacology; Pharmacy and Pharmacotherapy- in the study programmes General Veterinary Medicine and Food Hygiene. The department is responsible for teaching of the compulsory optional subject Clinical Pharmacology. In the study programme Pharmacy, the department provides teaching the compulsory subject Veterinary Pharmacology and the compulsory optional subject Veterinary Therapeutics. The subjects Basics of Pharmacology I and II are provided in the study programme Veterinary Nurse in both full-time and external forms. The compulsory subjects Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Therapeutics and the compulsory optional subject Clinical Pharmacology are offered in English. The subject Introduction to Pharmacology is provided in the joint study programme Animal Science. In its scientific research activities, the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology focuses on the issues of the pharmacology of drugs, therapeutic preparations and their residues in the animal organism. The research also focuses on the effects of natural substances and xenobiotics on organisms at molecular and cellular levels. The department copes with various tasks in the pharmaceutical-pharmacological and clinical fields.

In the field of toxicology, the department provides the undergraduate compulsory subject Toxicology in the study programmes General Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, Veterinary Nurse, and Food Hygiene in the Slovak language. The compulsory optional subject Ecotoxicology is offered in the study programme General Veterinary Medicine. The compulsory subject Toxicology and the compulsory optional subject Ecotoxicology are presented to international students in English. The department also provides the compulsory subject Analysis of Contaminants in Feed and Food in the study programme Feed and Food Safety and the compulsory optional subject Basics of Scientific Work in the study programmes General Veterinary Medicine and Food Hygiene. The department copes with research tasks related to the effect of xenobiotics, especially pesticides on the organisms of livestock, domestic, and wild animals. It also assesses the health and environmental risks of these substances for both animals and humans.

In the field of human and clinical pharmacology, the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology currently covers the teaching of undergraduate compulsory subjects Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy for the students of the study programme Pharmacy. In addition to compulsory subjects, two compulsory optional subjects (Free Radicals and Antioxidants and Phytopharmaceuticals) and one optional subject (Drugs Applied During Pregnancy and Lactation) are offered as well. In the study programme Man-Animal Relationship And Its Use In Canistherapy And Hipotherapy, the department is responsible for teaching the compulsory optional subject First Aid. As part of the pedagogical process, the scientists and teachers of the department act as supervisors or opponents in the preparation or defence of diploma and rigorous theses for the students of the study programme Pharmacy. In co-operation with external scientific institutions, the department is currently engaged in research tasks related to the issues of central regulation of food intake and its pharmacological influence or the antitumor effects of substances isolated from natural sources.