VTMED 6556 - Dairy Herd Epidemiology

Spring. 1 credit. Letter grades only.

Enrollment limited to: third- and fourth-year veterinary students.

L. D. Warnick, D. V. Nydam, Y. T. Grohn.

Veterinarians are increasingly asked to advise dairy producers on productivity and management decision-making. This course addresses the relationships of dairy cattle diseases with herd-performance parameters. Through a combination of lectures and laboratory exercises, students learn analytic techniques and computer software skills to evaluate dairy herd disease and production problems. Topics include (1) how often production diseases occur and when; (2) how they are interrelated; (3) the impact of disease on milk production, reproductive performance, and risk of culling; and (4) how to use this information in production medicine.