VDPAM 478C: Swine Emerging Diseases Diagnosis and management is a two-week rotation for fourth year veterinary students. The course focuses on emerging diseases such as Senecavirus A and PEDV as well as transboundary and foreign animal diseases that have the potential to impact the United States swine industry. As a culminating activity for the rotation that was held in April of this year, the National Pork Board was contracted to deliver training covering foreign animal disease preparedness and response.
The training was held on Friday, April 21, 2017 at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. The training included lectures in the morning followed by a hands-on table top exercise in the afternoon that was presented by Dr. Patrick Webb, Cindy Cunningham, and Bruce Spence.
A total of 40 people participated in the mock outbreak including eight veterinary students enrolled in the rotation, Swine Medicine Education Center instructors, National Pork Board employees, VDPAM faculty, Iowa’s State Veterinarian, Dr. David Schmitt, the USDA Area Veterinarian-In-Charge, Dr. Kevin Petersburg, Story County Emergency Management coordinator, Keith Morgan, and Iowa State University swine farm manager, Jeff Hartwig.
The training enabled the students to critically think and utilize their gained knowledge from the previous two weeks of lectures, discussions, and activities and apply it to an interactive model with input from key industry leaders and stakeholders who make decisions in the event of a foreign animal disease outbreak.
Watch a short time-lapse of the afternoon table top session here