veterinary medicine – Swine in Minnesota

Drs. Justin Brown and Perle Zhitnitskiy discuss “Swine Medicine Education: A Survey of North American and Caribbean Veterinary Colleges Curricula”

The Swine Disease Eradication Center is proud to present another episode of “Processing the Litter-ature”: a podcast in which peer-reviewed papers are docked, clipped and supplemented with a field perspective.

Drs. Justin Brown and Perle Zhitnitskiy discuss “Swine Medicine Education: A Survey of North American and Caribbean Veterinary Colleges Curricula”.

Dr. Maria Pieters honored with 2024 Distinguished Service Award by MVMA

Millions of people pass through the CHS Miracle of Bith Center (MOBC) at the Minnesota State Fair each year, likely unaware of the colossal effort it takes to ensure the health and safety of the hundreds of animals born in the exhibit.

Maria Pieters receives the 2024 Distinguished Service Award. Photo credit: Ryan Tibbitts.

Among those caring for animals and supporting more than 100 veterinary students and dozens of volunteer veterinarians on hand to help is Dr. Maria Pieters, an associate professor at the College of Veterinary Medicine. For her dedicated involvement with the exhibit and her passion for its mission, Pieters received the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association’s 2024 Distinguished Service Award.

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.