Education

SDEC faculty deliver a broad range of educational programs to DVM students, graduate students, and practicing veterinarians.

Minnesota Swine Summer Institute (2008)

The Minnesota Swine Summer Institute curriculum provides an intensive and integrated learning experience for veterinary students or graduates seeking knowledge and skills relevant to modern swine or mixed food animal practice. The program consists of a series of three 2-week intensive courses to be run over six consecutive weeks from August 11 until September 19, 2008. The three courses will be team taught by faculty of the Swine Division and Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory of the University of Minnesota, complemented by invited experts and leading practitioners.

Descriptions of the courses are:

CVM 6854: Introduction to Swine Health & Production
August 11 - August 22, 2008

An overview of swine health and production and an introduction to clinical problem solving based on case examples, including first-hand field experiences. Students will visit and assess a range of enterprises representing all components of the pork chain from feed milling, through animal production, to slaughter and processing. This will provide insight to the range of roles and responsibilities that veterinarians have in food animal production. Farm visits will include experience in problem definition and investigation, and students will be required to present written reports and oral presentations of their assessments and recommendations.

CVM 6855: Principles of Population Based Diagnostics & Therapeutics
August 25 - September 5, 2008

Comprehensive instruction in the principles of population (herd) based diagnostic and therapeutic decision making. The course will cover both theoretical and practical aspects of diagnostic test performance and interpretation using case-based examples of major swine diseases in North America. Case-based examples will also be used to reinforce theoretical principles and practice of therapeutic decision making in swine populations, including pharmacologic, legal, economic and logistic considerations. Both the diagnostic and therapeutic sections will incorporate practical sessions to give students direct experience with diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

CVM 6856 Advanced Swine Health and Production
September 8 - September 19, 2008

This is the capstone course integrating, synthesizing and adding to the knowledge and skills obtained in the 2 prerequisite swine summer institute rotations. The course will combine didactic lectures, in-class exercises and field trips to give you the knowledge and methods to attack complex field problems. You will be assigned to a team, given an actual field case and expected to work it up, and/or propose steps for the farm to take to resolve the problem. This course immediately precedes the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference from September 20-23 to facilitate participation at the conference.

Certificate Program in Swine Medicine

This program is offered to DVM students at the University of Minnesota, students at other accredited colleges of veterinary medicine in the US, and to international students who have a DVM or equivalent degree. The program consists of a minimum of 10 semester credits, two 12-week internships, and a formal seminar presentation.

Click here for a downloadable brochure.

For more information, please contact Dr. Han Soo Joo at 612-625-0235 or jooxx001@umn.edu.

Epidemiological Skills for Swine Practitioners

• A program led by Dr. Peter Davies, with support from other SDEC faculty, that is designed to broaden and deepen the technical skills of the next generation of leaders of the swine veterinary community.

• The core objective is to strengthen the epidemiological and analytical capabilities of mid-career veterinarians.

• The program specifically targets practicing clinical veterinarians and is delivered as a series of 2 day workshops (Friday/Saturday), with each workshop focused on one or two selected topics.

• The range of potential study topics include core epidemiological theory and practice; fundamentals of practical statistical analysis; design, analysis and interpretation of observational studies and field trials; techniques for economic decision making, and advanced diagnostic test interpretation (particularly herd level testing).

• Practical sessions are used to reinforce analytical skills, including use of epidemiological and analytical software

• The curriculum is partly user-guided with respect to selection of topics. Incorporation of current problems and projects of participants as study material is encouraged whenever appropriate.

• Enrollment will be limited to 6 to 10 participants which is optimal for small group education. Current participants are Steve Dudley, Jeff Feder, Barry Kerkaert, Joel Nerem, Chris Rademacher, Paul Ruen, and Mark Wagner.

For more information, please contact Professor Peter Davies at 612-625-8290 or davie001@umn.edu.

Allen D. Leman Swine Conference

The Allen D. Leman Swine Conference is an annual conference designed to provide state of the art information on swine health and production to swine veterinarians and producers. This is an international meeting drawing some 700 participants from across the world. The next meeting will be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, from September 20 - 23, 2008. Further details are available at http://www.cvm.umn.edu/outreach/events/adl/home.html

Carlos Pijoan Graduate Student Fellowship in Swine Medicine

Click here for an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) brochure.