On successful completion of this course students should be able to:

1. Explain the diagnosis, treatment, prevention and control of important diseases in the individual or a population of cattle, sheep, goats, deer and camelids.
2. Devise appropriate herd/flock health plans for cattle, sheep, goats, deer and camelids.
3. Apply the principles of population medicine and production in terms of investigation, biosecurity and communication.
4. Describe the common surgical procedures in cattle, sheep, goats, deer and camelids practice.

This course will be delivered by the following means:

3 Lectures of 1 hour each per week.
One 3-4 hour practical per week.
One day of clinic rotation per semester.

A student enrolled in a full year 6 unit course, such as this, should expect to spend, on average 24 hours per week on the studies required. This includes both the formal contact time required to the course (e.g., lectures and practicals), as well as non-contact time (e.g., reading and revision).

The learning activities will cover theoretical and practical basis of cattle, sheep, goats, deer and camelids medicine, surgery and production at individual animal and group level.

Any practical class or activity involving the handling of livestock (e.g. cattle, sheep, goat and camelids) will require students to wear hard-toed boots and clean overalls. Failure to wear these items will preclude the participation in that practical class. Long hair should be tied back or covered and jewellery removed. For activities involving clinical examination of animals, it is recommended that long nails be trimmed. It is also recommended that hats be worn for outdoor activities.

Due to the clinical nature of the core knowledge and skills that are being imparted during the practicals, and the fact that these sessions are interactive and include problem solving activities, therefore practicals within this course are considered to be compulsory.

Assessment Task	Task Type	Due	Weighting	Hurdle Yes or No	Learning Outcome
Practical Classes	Formative	Throughout the Semesters	0%	Yes	1, 2, 3, 4
Mid semester exams	Formative & Summative	Week 6 each Semester	20% (10% each)	No	1, 2, 3, 4
Literature Review	Formative & Summative	Week 8 Semester 1	15%	No	1, 2, 3, 4
End of Semester exam Semester 1	Summative	Exam week Semester 1	10%	Yes	1, 2, 3, 4
Clinical assignment & Oral Presentation	Formative & Summative	Week 8 Semester 2	25%	Yes	1, 2, 3, 4
MCQ submitted	Formative & Summative	Week 12 Semester 2	10%	No	1, 2, 3, 4
Final exam	Summative	Exam week Semester 2	20%	Yes	1, 2, 3, 4

An exemption to the hurdle requirements of the Assessment for Coursework Programs Policy has been approved by the Faculty of Sciences for 2018.

Assessment item with hurdle	% needed or requirement to meet hurdle	Is additional assessment available if student does not meet hurdle requirement? Yes or No	Details of additional assessment, if available
Clinical assignment	50%	Yes	Additional assignment
End of Semester and final Exams	Cumulative 50 %	Yes	Additional exam
Practical Classes	Maximum 1 absence (within approval) per semester	No

Practical Classes (0%):
The practical classes within the second year of the DVM Program, attended by all students 12 times per semester, support the practical skills required for graduating veterinary students. Achieving competence in the ruminant health and production medical, handling and husbandry skills is very different from learning a technical skill – competence describes the ability to put together a number of skills to produce a high-level performance judged satisfactory by experts in the field. The goal of the practicals is for students to become competent in medical, handling and husbandry skills of ruminants with minimal supervision and only minor errors, taking the view that the students will develop expertise only through further practice in the final year of the course, the extra-mural studies or after they graduate. Over the year, students develop the basic medical, handling and husbandry skills and knowledge taught in the first year of the DVM Program, integrating and applying their technical skills and knowledge to working with live animals. The students learn to exercise judgement in a dynamic situation potentially life-threatening for the handler, veterinarian and/or patient, while behaving in a professional, responsible manner.

Mid Semester (20% of total mark [10% each semester]):
A test will be based on material presented in lectures, clinical rotations and practicals in the weeks preceding the test. The feedback to the answers to the questions will be immediately provided in form of a written feedback after submitting the answers. The one hour test will occur twice by mid semester (by end of week 6 each semester) to allow for feedback to students so they can gauge their progress through the course.

Clinical Assignment & Oral Presentation (25% of total mark):
Each individual student will submit a maximum of 1,000 word essay (12.5% of the total mark) describing a component of the clinical investigation on a topic/s presented as a clinical scenario related to the diagnosis, management, monitoring and prevention of cattle, sheep, goat, deer and camelid health and production given to a group of students. Students will present their findings to the rest of the group as an oral presentation of 20 minutes in length (10% of total mark allocated by the instructor) and 2.5% by peer-assessment for the group work and presentation.

Literature Review (15% of total mark):
An assignment (up to 2,000 words excluding references/bibliography) on a topic related to cattle, sheep, goat, deer and camelid health and production, and will require literature research, an across-discipline approach to a solution, as well as encourage the synthesis of knowledge. Students must show ability to synthetise the work using evidence-based veterinary medicine. The corrected reports will be made available to all students for future reference with maintained anonymity.

MCQ submitted (10% of total mark):
In the second semester 10% of the total course grade will be based on student submission of MCQ-format questions and feedback on the questions will be discussed with students.

Final Exams (30% of total mark [10% first semester and 20% second semester]):
There will be an exam at the end of each semester which will test the student’s understanding and ability to apply knowledge to real veterinary problems in the areas of cattle, sheep, goat and camelid health and production. Both theory and practical elements of the course will be examined. The questions may include MCQ, short answers and/or short essays.

If an extension is not applied for, or not granted then a penalty for late submission will apply. A mark of zero will be allocated to late submitted assessment.