The Department of Production Animal Medicine operates in two locations: the Saari estate in Mäntsälä (some 60 kilometres northeast of Helsinki) and the Viikki Campus in Eastern Helsinki.

The Saari Unit accommodates the disciplines of both reproduction of domestic animals and production animal medicine. Reproduction of domestic animals investigates the reproduction of the most important domestic animals in Finland, and production animal medicine focuses mainly on ruminants and pigs. The Saari Unit also houses the Production Animal Hospital, one of the clinics of the University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital,which includes a mobile clinic, a hospital for production animals and an outpatient clinic.

The Helsinki Unit offers the discipline of animal management and welfare, which covers the feeding of and the effects of the production environment on domestic animals as well as animal welfare, ethology and animal protection.

Both the Saari Unit and the Helsinki Unit have their own research laboratories. The Saari Laboratory concentrates primarily on patient samples and on laboratory work supporting research in animal reproduction. The Helsinki/Viikki Laboratory serves those departments of the Faculty that focus on clinical medicine and, in addition to analysing patient samples, offers ample opportunities for extensive research. Furthermore, the Helsinki Unit features an ethology laboratory specialising in technology related to the description and analysis of animal behaviour.

The teaching staff are involved in organising the operations of the Research Centre for Animal Welfare, which is a cooperation network of experts in the field at the University of Helsinki. The national ANIWEL Graduate School in Animal Welfare will focus on a multidisciplinary investigation of animal welfare and clinical veterinary research for the period 2010-13. The Department also accommodates the Finnish Centre for Animal Welfare, which is a national cooperation network funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

http://www.vetmed.helsinki.fi/saari/english/index.htm