VMLL 2122 - Reproductive Management of Swine

This course is designed to provide the veterinary practitioner with fundamental information on swine production. Those enrolled in the course will gain the knowledge and analytical skills to accurately describe the context in which certain diseases occur in commercial swine, as well as describe the purpose of, and advantages and disadvantages of such issues of societal concern such as confinement operations, farrowing crates, and intensified husbandry.

Finally, upon completion of this course, practitioners will be able to describe the basic nutritional, immunization, and husbandry needs of pet miniature pigs.

At the end of this module, practitioners should be able to define the following reproductive parameters and characteristics of pigs:

• age at puberty, estrous cycle length, duration of estrus, breeding and estrus behavior, and gestation length
• list criteria for gilt and boar selection, and describe the available tools for genetic improvement
• describe common breeding strategies and methods of pregnancy diagnosis
• describe the pathogenesis, clinical signs, treatment, & prevention of common causes of abortion in sows

Noncredit courses do not produce academic credit nor appear on a Colorado State University academic transcript.

Instructors

David Van Metre

Dr. Dave VanMetre is an Associate Professor at CSU. He attended veterinary school at Cornell University and graduated in 1989. After completing a residency in food animal medicine and surgery at the University of California at Davis in 1993, he became board-certified in internal medicine and joined the faculty of the veterinary school at Kansas State University.

In 1999, he joined the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. His clinical interests include surgical management of lameness in cattle, gastrointestinal disorders, and agricultural worker training.