Safety is first and foremost the ability to prevent, repair and make less severe harms, risks and difficulties.
Protecting the health and safety in working environments is a direct consequence of the definition reported above. Legislative Decree No. 81/2008 establishes that healthy and safe working environments must be ensured to all employees so that they can perform their duties safely.

This is of the utmost importance for the University of Padova. For this, over the past years a lot has been done with regard to the security of older buildings and the construction of working environments that comply with safety measures. In addition to this, to ensure the health and safety in the workplace, the University of Padova established a System for the management of employees' health and safety at work, the SGSS. The system aims at ensuring that organizational and management skills are acquired so as to set up working environments that are safe and healthy, prevent work-related harms and diseases and improve continuously in terms of health and safety at work.

Among the SGSS' objectives are its users: students, technical-administrative staff, doctoral researchers and research fellows, contract staff, researchers and teachers. Because each place is different, every department has appointed a person for managing and coordinating safety and health issues in the workplace.

The Department of MAPS, in compliance with University rules (the Rector's delegate responsible for safety is Prof. Riccardo Borsari), has developed its own organisational chart for safety management: 

Director: Prof. Alessandro ZOTTI 
Director's delegate responsible for safety: Dr. Alessandra Mondin.

General measures on employees' health and safety at work concern:

• preventive assessment of risks and their elimination/reduction to a minimum.
• prioritization in the adoption of collective measures instead of individual ones
• proper planning of work processes so as to reduce to a minimum employees' exposure to risk
• regular maintenance and cleaning of premises, equipment, machinery and facilities
• information and training of employees

Furthermore, in light of the EAEVE accreditation of the single cycle degree course in Veterinary Medicine planned for October 2020, in order to meet ESEVT objectives (European System of Evaluation of Veterinary Training) three SOP Committees have been appointed - Service and teaching quality for the development of a Quality System. Moreover, a Manual containing measures for the management of safety during practical activities, Tirocinio and the final examination has been drafted.

The manual, which is available below, comprises an introductory chapter on safety training covering veterinary students' access to teaching laboratories and other clinical facilities, as well as other chapters on existing regulations to ensure activities are carried out safely in laboratories, clinical facilities and the stable.
An hard copy of the manual is available to all users in each laboratory, clinical facility and the stables; specific provisions shall be displayed correctly and users informed.