Swine Medicine? Really?

Yes, I admit it: I signed up for the Swine Medicine elective.

WHY, you're probably asking right about now. Why on earth would you want to learn about pigs? Do you want to work with pigs? Have you ever even touched a (live) pig?

Here are my reasons:

1. Much of what you hear about boards (the NAVLE exam) from senior students and new grad DVMs is how many questions were asked about pigs and poultry. Realistically, about 10-12% of the questions (far exaggerated by some students) relate to swine and poultry medicine, but that's still a pretty big chunk of the test. So I figure it can't hurt to learn the basics.

2. There isn't any other place in the curriculum for us to learn about pigs. We don't even have any swine medicine elective rotations available to us, due to a serious lack of pigs in the area.

3. This will be the easiest course I've ever taken, anywhere. This is the easiest course I've ever even heard of. It's all online (i.e. NO lectures), all self-taught, all self-paced. There are 5 "modules" to go through, with a "quiz" at the end of each module. The 5 quizzes together are worth 25% of the grade. They are open-note, open-book, and open-classmate, i.e. it is perfectly allowed for the entire class to get together one afternoon and do the quiz together. The remaining 75% of the grade is a cumulative final exam (online, multiple choice), again, all open-note, open-book, and open-classmate. Allegedly nobody has ever failed the course.

So I'm game. You say, "Why pigs?" I say, "Why not? Sure are tasty!"