Teaching bovine rectal palpation with live cows in the slaughterhouse: is it worthwhile?

Bovine rectal palpation, a procedure that requires considerable practice to develop the necessary skills, is often taught during extramural activities, or even learnt in practice after graduation. However, student access to cows in extramural activities may be limited because of student numbers, animal welfare considerations and concerns over induction of embryo mortality because of inexperience of the student. To overcome some of these limitations, in our school practical classes of bovine rectal palpation are taught in a slaughterhouse, with small groups of approximately 10 students per class, over a period of 30 weeks. Number of cows palpated, type of cases found and the success rate of students in the final practical exam were recorded and analysed for 3 years, and contrasted with the pre-established goals for the course. Additionally, a questionnaire was sent to former students to assess their opinion on the usefulness of the palpation course, as well as to identify main learning difficulties and collect suggestions to improve teaching methods. Overall, the information obtained indicated that the course is useful to teach palpation skills, even if the original goals may have been very optimistic. Most (96%) of the respondents had the opinion that the course was very useful or useful. Several suggestions were offered to improve teaching methods, but there was no consensus on a single recommendation. Despite the fact that a considerable number of respondents to the questionnaire did not use bovine rectal palpation in their practice, only one considered the classes 'not useful'. It is concluded that this method of teaching rectal palpation should be continued and the teaching methods improved with the adoption of some modifications.