The Regional Agricultural Research Agency of Sardinia (Agris Sardegna) has been established in 2006, from the joining of five former regional institutions dealing with different aspects of agriculture research and development.
The mission of the Agency is fostering sustainable rural development, protecting and enhancing animal, plant and microbial biodiversity, developing the agricultural, agro-industrial, forest and fishery sectors. To achieve its aims, Agris is involved in different activities, such as: research and development projects; technical and scientific advice to farmers, agri-food industries, and EU registered trademark product consortiums; training and dissemination.
The Division “Products of Animal Origin” is composed by four research units: Microbiology, Chemistry, Dairy technology and Sensory Analyses. The Division has an experimental dairy plant and laboratories to support research with equipment suitable for: experimental cheese manufactures; classical and molecular microbiological analyses for bacteria identification and characterisation; chemical analyses (macrocomposition, lipid fraction, protein and protein fractions, aromatic volatile profile); sensory characterization and study of consumer’s perception of Sardinian traditional and labelled products, panelists’ training.
Besides different activities (characterization of the microflora colonising traditional and PDO products of Sardinia, studies of safety, quality, probiotic characteristics and shelf-life of products), the Microbiology Unit staff (3 researchers and 1 technician) is engaged also in the preservation, protection and enhancement of microbial biodiversity through the maintenance of the autochthonous strains collection.

BNSS (Bonassai-Sassari) microbial collection
The BNSS (Bonassai-Sassari) microbial collection was founded in 1967 and is mainly constituted by lactic acid bacteria isolated from sheep and goat milk and cheese, but isolates coming from other matrices, such as fermented meat products, table olives, fish, ovine faeces, ram semen are also present.
The collection is made up by about 10,000 frozen (-80 °C) and/or freeze-dried isolates (5,500 genetically identified) and mixed cultures catalogued in a filing system for the laboratory use only. Occasionally, when requested, the Microbiology Unit provides starter cultures, free of charge, to local dairy plants, after an official request and the signature of a MTA.

Key persons

• Roberta Comunian, PhD
  In charge of the Microbiology Unit of the Products of Animal Origin Division.
  Member of the Scientific Committee of MIRRI-IT.
• Elisabetta Daga, PhD
  Researcher at the Microbiology Unit of the Products of Animal Origin Division.
  Member of the General Assembly of MIRRI-IT.
• Dr Antonio Paba
  Researcher at the Microbiology Unit of the Products of Animal Origin Division.