LVEK11010 Veterinary Jurisprudence and Animal Welfare Assessment

Details
Responsible DepartmentDepartment of Large Animal Sciences

Earliest Possible YearMSc. 2 year
DurationOutside schedule
 
Credits3.5 (ECTS)
 
Level of CourseMSc
 
ExaminationFinal Examination

written examination


Written Exam in Lecturehall

All aids allowed

Description of Examination: The exam is a 4 hours written examination on exercises of the type used during the course; please see description of learning outcomes

pass/fail, internal examiner
 
Requirement for Attending ExamSubmission of written answers to exercises at the end of the first week
 
Organisation of TeachingThe teaching lasts 10 full days (two weeks) from 8.00 to 16.00. Class room teaching with alternating lectures and teoretical exercises, video-lab exercises and an exercise in a production animal herd during ½ day.
 
Block PlacementBlok 3
Week Structure: Udenfor ugestruktur, Team 1. Part 1 is taught to 50% of the class during the last week of block 1

Blok 4
Week Structure: Udenfor ugestruktur, Team 1. Part 2 is taught to 50% of the class during the first week of block 2

Blok 1
Week Structure: Udenfor ugestruktur, Team 2. Part 1 is taught to the other 50% of the class during the last week of block 3

Blok 2
Week Structure: Udenfor ugestruktur, Team 2. Part 2 is taught to the other 50% of the class during the first week of block 4
 
Language of InstructionDanish
 
Optional PrerequisitesAlle kurser på kandidatdelens 1. år forudsættes gennemført. Begrundelsen er, at kursusdeltagerne skal have en god indsigt i medicinske sygdomme samt reproduktion som biologisk grundlag for at forstå lovgivningen
 
RestrictionsNo limit. Forbeholdt veterinærstuderende.
 
Course Content
The course includes lectures and theoretical and practical exercises relating to legislation on veterinary work and the constituent structure of the veterinary profession, feed and rendering plants, welfare assessment, strategies to combat livestock diseases, EU veterinary conditions, semen and embryos and eggs, the circulation of animals and exports and imports of animals and animal products, and breeding conditions. Exercises are conducted in the above subjects as well as in planning of control programs, and practical simulation exercises. Lectures and exercises are conducted in order to combine regulatory relationship with medical, pathological and clinical knowledge and causal sequences. This should make the student able to accomplish disease control and animal rights and for formulating professionally objectively also in trade, animal welfare and insurance, and expert cases.

The course also includes lectures and exercises on welfare assessment at the herd level. It provides a background for the different measures used in different methods of welfare assessment, as well as an overview, partly from the scientific findings underlying the various goals, and partly from the ethical and theoretical reasoning, which is part of a welfare assessment. The various advantages and disadvantages of management-based objectives, resource-based and animal-based measures are reviewed and discussed. These exercises give the student the opportunity to test different parts of the welfare assessment schemes

As a special condition to understand the concept of animal welfare and to implement welfare assessment and welfare checks, with respect to the animal protection legislation, the course aims to link forensic medicine and animal welfare assessment. Another course at the bachelor level already covers the entire animal welfare legislation, which is largely based on ethological knowledge. The legislation includes many gray areas where a legal decision is based on an assessment of whether the threshold for poor welfare is exceeded and, thus, in a technical legal sense leads to a violation of animal welfare legislation.
 
Teaching and learning Methods
Lectures, theoretical and practical exercises and written assignments, including the use of legislative databases. The choice is justified by a large syllabus with the need to give overview lectures, to train the use of written law texts and the framing of legal documents, and training in the practical application of legislation on disease control and animal welfare assessment.
 
Learning Outcome
The course main objective is to teach the students to manage legislation concerning veterinary work and livestock diseases and to assess animal welfare. Furthermore, the student could apply the principles to combine regulatory relationship with medical, pathological, clinical and welfare-related knowledge and causal sequences. On this basis, the students should be able to express themselves professionally objectively also in trade, welfare and insurance matters.


When the course is finished, the student is expected to be able to do the following:

Knowledge:
Knowledge of legislation on veterinary and animal diseases and animal rights and the formulation and writing of legal documents.
Knowledge and understanding of the concept of animal welfare and animal welfare assessment of both farm animals and companion animals.
Knowledge of procedures for dealing with trade, animal protection, insurance and expert cases.

Skills:
Apply and work under the legislation on veterinary work, veterinary services and livestock diseases, and critically to implement welfare assessment.
Write legal documents and thus define themselves professionally objectively by assessment of temporal and causal relationships in trade, animal protection, insurance and expert cases.
Write and articulate themselves in a professional manner and in layman's terms in order that the legal documents must be used by judicial and civil authorities who are not aware of veterinary jargon.

Competences:
Cooperation with animal owners, other veterinarians (including authority employees), and the courts (including police) on disease control and in trade, animal protection, insurance and expert cases, and welfare assessment.
Take responsibility in veterinary work in critical situations as stated in legislation.
Take responsibility for own updating of knowledge of veterinary-related legislation
 
Course Literature
I. Legislation on livestock diseases and the constituent structure of the veterinary profession. Published electronically in Danish language by Schultz Forlag (www.schultz.dk) (Subscription is traded by the Faculty of Life Sciences Library). As an alternative the legislation may be accessed at www.retsinfo.dk (electronic database with all Danish legislation).
II. Notes on EU veterinary legislation (see the learning platform Absalon at Punkt KU).
III. Extract from the book: Nielsen, M.: Extract of Veterinary Forensic Medicine, 3 ed. Guide in Veterinary Forensic Medicine, Vol 1 (published in Danish language, "Uddrag af Veterinær retsmedicin. 3. udgave af vejledning i veterinær retslære, 1. del". København, Kandrup & Wunsch Forlag 1956, pp 31-61). Edited and linguistically revised by assoc. Prof. H.B. Simonsen, October 2001. (on Absalon).
IV. Notes on welfare theory and assessment.
 
Course Coordinator
Jens Frederik Gramstrup Agger, jfa@life.ku.dk, Department of Large Animal Sciences/Populationsbiology, Phone: 353-33013
 
Study Board
Study Committee V
 
Work Load
lectures20
Colloquia22
preparation44
project work6
examination4

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