Challenges and opportunities in modern swine veterinary education
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to veterinary education. As the public health situation worsened, veterinary colleges and schools across North America adapted rapidly to continue teaching and mentoring their students. This required a close examination of veterinary curriculums to prioritize efforts to adequately prepare future veterinarians for their careers. As part of the examination, the appropriate role of swine veterinary medicine in modern curricula needed to be defined and updated. As a new normality emerges, it is critically important that both a basic understanding of swine medicine, as well as opportunities for advanced swine learning and clinical skill development, remain available and accessible for all veterinary students.
When considering the impact of the modern swine industry, the increasing development of localized small-scale agriculture, and the growing number of pet pigs, veterinary colleges have a duty to ensure that students are exposed to topics in swine health, management, and production as they prepare their graduates for lifetime careers in veterinary medicine. Despite the growing need for swine veterinary services, an ongoing analysis spearheaded by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians Collegiate Activities Committee (AASV-CAC), which represents a significant proportion of the swine-focused veterinary college faculty across North America, has raised concern over significant gaps and discrepancies in the levels of swine-related lectures, laboratories, and rotations offered at AVMA-accredited veterinary colleges.
While it remains true that a relatively small proportion of veterinary graduates focus on swine, numerous veterinary domains such as population medicine, food safety, animal welfare, and public health, which are cornerstones of swine practice, remain pertinent to all veterinarians. Swine case studies provide exemplary opportunities to introduce veterinary students to concepts and skills that have broader application in veterinary medicine. The purpose of this commentary is to describe the experiences of the AASV-CAC, outline the disadvantages of a veterinary education lacking swine medicine curriculum, and introduce the investigative approach that the AASV-CAC is undertaking to better understand the state of swine veterinary education in North America. We would also like to invite the greater veterinary community to engage and collaborate with the AASV-CAC to determine the most appropriate path forward.
Authors: Gilbert Patterson, Justin T. Brown, Glen W. Almond, Alejandro Ramirez, Jeremy Pittman, Maria Pieters, Andrew S. Bowman, Locke A. Karriker, Perle E. Zhitnitskiy
Source: https://avmajournals.avma.org/
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