Oral and Poster Abstracts

clinician (B).Of the farm visits B carried out 92% (2576 of 2809),
90% (121of 135) bovine obstetrical procedures and all (n3) of
operations for right sided displacement and torsion of
the abomasum. All health plans and routine fertility visits to both
dairy and beef cows were carried out by B. B has worked in this
practice for 37 years, is due to retire and the farm clients are
concerned as to the future supply of veterinary services. It is unlikely
that the existing clinicians will gain the qualifications of B or that on
retirement the practice will attract a clinician with similar experience
and qualifications. The practice has a relatively small farm animal
client base compared to many farm orientated UK practices, for
example, an eight person practice in Cheshire looks after 30,000
dairy cows and an eight person practice in Yorkshire looks after
9000 dairy cows and 9000 beef cows.Equine emergencies tended to
be limited to wounds, limb fractures and colic. The majority of
wounds were dealt with by one of the clinicians; surgical colics were
transported to a neighbouring horse hospital for further treatment
and most limb fractures were euthanased. Bovine emergencies are
dealt with on farm. This urban practice is not dissimilar to other UK
practices with relatively small livestock bases. It is likely that such
practices will cease to service the livestock industry and will be
attended by specialist farm veterinary surgeons from a greater
distance which may well compromise the welfare of individual
animals requiring prompt attention.
Key words: welfare, bovine obstetrics, veterinary services
298 Teaching Beef Cow-Calf Production Medicine to Veterinary
Students at Purdue University, USA
W. Hilton
Purdue University, School of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary
Clinical Sciences, West Lafayette, United States
Purdue University began teaching Beef Production Medicine in 1999
with an elective, lecture course in the second semester of the third of
four years of veterinary school. The course is divided into the
subjects of: Health, Records, Fertility, Marketing, Genetics,
Nutrition and Environment. Actual herd histories are presented to
the students who work in groups in a problem-based learning setting
during class to develop a list of questions they would ask the client.
The instructor provides answers to these questions and the students
then formulate possible solutions to the owner’s concerns. During
the fourth year of school, the students get an opportunity to do farm
visits and actually see these farms that they have discussed in class.
This way they can actually experience the entire business and see if
their suggestions are workable options for the owner. The student
feedback on the lecture course has been very positive and they rate
the actual on the farm experience as critical to their long term
retention of this subject.
Key words: beef production medicine, teaching, problem-based
learning
299 Training in Reproduction within the Framework of the
"Intensive Study Munich". Results of an Evaluation by
Students of Veterinary Medicine
E. Zeiler 1 , R. Martin 1 , J. Friker 2 , R. Mansfeld 1 , H. Zerbe 1
1 University of Munich, Clinic for Ruminants, Munich, Germany
2 University of Munich, Institute for Anatomy, Munich, Germany
The "Intensive Study Munich" has been started at the Veterinary
Faculty of the UM as a clinical rotations programme during the
summer semester in 2005. It is provided for students of the 8th and
9th semester to improve the clinical training programme within the
veterinary curriculum. Passing the curriculum of the reproduction
unit in the Clinic for Ruminants by the students takes 3.5 weeks
concerning a clinical or an ambulatory/herd health management
division. Participants are integrated in all daily routines of the
clinical work getting lots of opportunities to improve their practical
skills. In the ambulatory/herd health management division students
visit dairy farms accompanied by a veterinarian. Additional to the
clinical work there are practical-oriented lessons in andrology,
obstretics, gynecology and herd health management. The efficiency
and acceptance of training units concerning reproduction medicine
and production medicine/herd health were evaluated by 211
students, who had passed the training units of the Clinic for
Ruminants. 30 random chosen evaluation sheets were analysed each
from the clinical division and the ambulatory/herd health
management division of the clinic. The evaluation sheets, providing
grades from “1” (very good) to “5” (inadequate), included aspects of
organisation of the training units, well being of the students as team
members, effectiveness of lessons, support by teaching stuff and
learning success. All aspects were mostly evaluated as “very good”
or “good”. Overall learning success was evaluated as “very good” by
61.3% and 60.0% of the participants of the clinical and
ambulatory/herd health management division, resp. The better result
of evaluation of the well being of the students as team members and
the support by teaching stuff by the students in the ambulatory/herd
health management division caused in an intensive collaboration
between students and teaching veterinarians. By driving the whole
day from farm to farm they grow to a team. On the other hand the
visits of farms are often limited in time. In addition the farmers are
present during the therapies causing restriction of the practical
engagement of the students. So the training of practical skills in the
clinical division was evaluated as more intensive than in the
ambulatory/herd health management division. The results of this
evaluation show that the new form of clinical education is very well
accepted by the students.
POSTER ABSTRACTS
1051 Changes in Daily Gain of Weight with the Inclusion of
Leaves of Agave Blue Tequilana Weber in the Food of the
Beef Bullocks
I. Ruiz, Y. Martínez, J. Orozco
Universidad de Guadalajara, Biological Sciences, Tepatitlan Jalisco
Mexico, Mexico
The harvest of the agave head, which is used to obtain the tequila
drink, produces the leaves (also called “pencas” which are left on the
field to rot without any benefit for the agave producer who has also
ruminants in the farm. The present trial was undertaken to assess the
apparent digestibility of total mixed ration containing three levels of
agave leaves, using bullocks (n = 9) bearing a harness to collect the
feces. The experiment lasted 21 days of which the last 5 were to
assess intake and feces production and sampling. The data obtained
were analyzed (SAS 2005) as a randomly designed trial for three
agave leaves levels (0, 20, 40%). As the agave leaves were increased
in the feed the nutrients intake was augmented (P = 0.058), however
the daily gain of weight was unchanged (P > 0.05). On the other
hand, the digestibility of most of the nutrients was increased as the
leaves of the agave plant were augmented (P < 0.05). Based on the
findings, it could be concluded that the agave leaves can be used to
up 40% in the beef bullocks.
1052 Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Artificial Insemination
Phantom
SM. Zolhavarieh, HR. Zahiri
Junior School of Veterinary Medicine, Bu-Ali Sina University,
Clinical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran
Introduction: The phantom of cow is a simulator developed to train
veterinary students to palpate the bovine reproductive tract, to
perform fertility examinations, to diagnose pregnancy and to perfom
artificial insemination (AI) in the cow. The phantom uses natural
organ, which allows student to touch the real condition. When being
trained with this phantom, the student palpates real parts of the
bovine reproductive tract. The teacher provides instruction and
feedback while following the student's actions inside the phantom
through of specific window. The procedures are difficult to teach
and to learn using traditional methods and students need plenty of
opportunities to practice to develop the required skills. When
palpating cows hand movements are not visible, which means the
student cannot copy what the teacher did and it is also difficult to
provide effective guidance. The phantom has been developed as a
supplement to existing training methods, which the natural organ is
positioned inside a fibreglass model of the rear-half of a cow.
Validating the phantom: Research work has been undertaken by
writers to validate the phantom. It was important to establish that
skills developed during phantom training transferred to the real task.
Education Workshop 329