education – Swine in Minnesota

Dr. Perle Zhitnitskiy named founding member of new veterinary educator credential process

Dr. Perle Zhitnitskiy, swine faculty member at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine and regular contributor at the umnswinenews.com blog, has been named distinguished expert in Veterinary Education and founding member of a new credentialing process that will be offered to veterinarian education professionals.

The American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) in partnership with the Academy of Veterinary Educators announced in October that Zhitnitskiy is among 32 veterinary educators chosen to oversee the Academy-Certified Expert Educator credential.

Earn your M.S. or Ph.D. degree at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine

The University of Minnesota’s strengths in infectious disease, immunology, comparative medicine, and zoonotic agents will prepare you for success at the intersection of animal, human and ecosystem health. Key scientific fields are facing shortages of new graduates, and an advanced degree rooted in comparative veterinary medicine will give you an advantage to address long standing health issues.

Apply by December 1 for admission in the fall z.umn.edu/vetgradprogram

Swine Veterinary Education in the US: current challenges and opportunities

The AASV Collegiate Activity Committee taskforce, co-led by Drs. Gil Patterson (VetNOW) and Perle Zhitnitskiy (UMN CVM) published a commentary in JAVMA regarding the current state of affairs in swine veterinary education in the United States.

Creating measurable, practice-relevant day-1 competencies for swine veterinary education

In this open-access publication in the Education in the Health Professions journal, Dr. Perle Zhitnitskiy and faculty from the University of Minnesota describe their process to create day-1 competencies for veterinary graduates interested in swine practice.

Key points

The University of Minnesota collaborated with swine practitioners, faculty from other Universities and the American Association of Swine Veterinarians to develop relevant day-1 competencies.
Three levels of expertise were defined: basic, intermediate and defined.
109 competencies were developed in nine domains: pig handling, swine husbandry, sample collection, record keeping, treatment and prevention, biosecurity, communication and regulatory.

New training videos available: protecting pigs and people from the flu and moving sows

Drs. Jeff Bender and Cesar Corzo collaborated with the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center and the National Pork Board to develop training videos for anyone interacting with pigs.