The End Is Near
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It’s hard to believe that this semester is already almost done. The practice dissections are over. The only things left are the practical and the written exams. I know I should feel stressed and worked up, but all I’m feeling is prepared, and that’s what worries me.
I lucked out having taken A&P early in my college career. It has continued to pay off all semester. Even though there are huge differences between mammalian and avian livestock, there are also commonalities. So, I at least have a basic understanding of most of the organ systems and tissues. Along with learning the avian systems, this class has helped me refresh my understanding of mammalian systems as well. But, having the basic animal knowledge hasn’t made this class a cake walk. I’ve had my share of struggles this semester as well.
My biggest struggle has been learning the avian skeleton. A bone is a bone, or so I thought. Animals are easy, here’s a bone, here’s a name; one form, one function. Birds of course have to be different. Fused bones, pneumatic bones, multi-function bones… make it stop. Even though there are fewer individual bones in birds, having to relearn the names is giving me trouble, but I’m getting there. Hopefully by the time the lab final rolls around, I’ll be set.
Another area I have struggled in dissection is taking the breast off within five minutes. This looks way easier than it actually is. On bigger birds, my trouble is getting to the head of the humerus. I never cut enough breast tissue away on my first few cuts, for fear of cutting something important. This past week, I was faster than I’ve been, but it still took me a good thirty extra seconds. I have the procedure down now, but I’m just still too slow. Hopefully I can find my groove during the tailgate necropsy.
I feel like my dissection technique has greatly improved over the course of this semester. At the beginning, I was clumsily cutting away; anything that got in my way was getting cut (important or not). Now, however, I feel much more at ease going through the bird. I’m cutting only what has to be cut at this point, which honestly isn’t very much. The biggest thing that’s helped is talking my way through it while I’m doing it. I think it’s helped me form a road map for my dissection, which I’m hoping will help greatly on the lab final.
I have honestly enjoyed this class. I truly feel that I have been able to take away a better understanding of what makes birds unique. Hopefully, I can take this class with me into my future career, and use my newly acquired physiological understanding of chickens in the field. This has been a challenging course, but I definitely know a lot more coming out than I did going in.
Labs 2 and 3
Lab 1 is now history, and there were some important lessons learned. Breaking down a bird is way more involved than I originally thought. Needless to say, I developed a whole new respect for the debone crew that comes up to the farm. The ability to move the number of birds they do is truly impressive.
The breakdown process is very straight forward, but as a rookie, I felt like I was struggling pretty hard. The hardest part for me was removing the breast without breaking the clavicles. My sausage fingers didn’t work well for getting behind the shoulder. I kept trying to work the back side of the shoulder to loosen up the connective tissue, but I ended up destroying a good bit of the muscle surrounding it.
Fortunately round 2 went much smoother. I was able to get the entire breast off with only minor damage to the shoulder muscles. However, this time the birds were larger. The increased age in the bird was the trying part for me this go around. The older bird had stronger bones and joints. I had some difficulty separating the humerus without breaking it, but I was able to get it to work with the help from the scissors.
The biggest takeaway from the second lab was dissection technique is a big deal. Being able to cut into a bird is something. Being able to make smart cuts in the correct location is something completely different. The extra practice is definitely paying off. I really focused on following anatomical landmarks during the breast removal part, and it went much better. Another thing I focused on was trying to only cut when it was absolutely needed, and use my fingers when I could.
I think my anatomy knowledge coming into the class is both helping and hurting me in this class. It’s nice because having a base level of general anatomy coming in gives me a head start in the lab. But, knowing mammalian anatomy does not mean I know avian anatomy. So it messes me up when I’m learning the new material. Luckily, there is a lot of overlap between the two.
Moving forward, I am hoping to keep improving my technique in hopes of doing well in both the lab final and my eventual career. The extra practice is going to be the secret. I have no doubt that by the end of the course, I will be able to walk and talk my way through the process. The skills are starting to come back from my mammalian A&P course, so hopefully I can keep improving for the duration of the course. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.
Anticipation
I have always been interested in anatomy and systems-based approaches to physiology. This helped me greatly in my time as a Combat Medic. Having the A&P background knowledge was literally a life-saver. This continued interest has helped greatly with my transition into agriculture as well. As I’ve progressed through my double major program, anatomy and physiology has been a major part of my education. Most of my dissection experience has come from mammals, and I am excited to get into the poultry dissections and observe the differences in avian species.
I am planning on working in the reproduction side of poultry, so naturally I am looking forward to opening up tracts and exploring the inner workings. Seeing as how our Poultry Repro class no longer has a lab, I am counting on the dissections in this class for valuable first-hand experience. Any knowledge I can gain of the cell signaling pathways involved with reproduction and embryonic development would be great as well. Hopefully between both classes, I can gain a solid knowledge base on the topics.
Another area that poultry has always intrigued me is the respiratory system. Coming from the four-legged side of animal agriculture, the anatomical differences in birds have always amazed me. I am very much looking forward to getting into the dissections and observing the respiratory organs, and specifically how they function and interact with the cardiorespiratory system.
Some people might be a little uneasy about the thought of opening up and exploring through a dead animal, but I think that dissection is a great way to figure out new information about the organism and its inner workings. This being said however, I did feel a little apprehensive when I heard our final would be an oral explanation of our dissection. I think it is a great way to really test our knowledge, while also examining our dissection skills. Testing like this really forces someone to be more engaged in the labs, and thereby learn more than they normally would.
I’ve had a good bit of dissection experience, throughout my college career, but dissection is a perishable skill. As such, I’m excited to get the chance to brush back up on my technique. I believe the techniques involved with dissection is of particular importance for future poultry scientists working in the industry, particularly the live production side. The ability to quickly and cleanly open up a carcass and do a rough necropsy is very important for forming a working diagnosis for what happened/is happening to the flock. I think most people overlook that fact, and it could negatively affect the industry as a whole.
These are just a few reasons why I am looking forward to getting into the dissections. As an Animal Scientist, I think I’m going to learn a lot from this course that will help me carry new ideas back to the mammalian side of agriculture. As a Poultry Scientist, this is required knowledge that will help me make informed decisions once I’m out in the field. Let’s get to it!
My Favorite and Least Favorite Foods
My favorite food is Macaroni and Cheese. Mac n' Cheese is one of those dishes that just takes you back to childhood. It just takes you back to mama's kitchen table, where everything was going to be alright. The creamy cheese and that perfect noodle texture, yum.
In the south, mac n' cheese is one of those sides that can just go with almost anything. It can go with a Thanksgiving Dinner just as well as any random Wednesday night. I've always been a cheese guy. That creamy, sharp taste of a good pot of mac n' cheese just takes me where I need to be. It's just a true comfort food.
My least favorite food is Black-Eyed Peas. This stuff is just awful. To me, they just taste like dirt flavored mush. It probably doesn't hurt that, as a kid, I was seriously allergic to them. My parents say that I hate peas because I was allergic, but I think my body just knew how much I hated peas and made the right decision.
Unfortunately, my body now has no problem with them. So whenever I get together with family, I feel guilty if I don't eat Aunt Glinda's Famous Black-Eyed Peas. She sure is lucky she's family! Maybe one day I'll be able to tolerate them, but I'm putting my money on a no.
Food Safety
Growing up, food safety was one of those things that I never remembered thinking about. That's not to say that we didn't try to take some precautions, it just wasn't spoken about specifically. I remember my mom always trying to keep her chicken separated from other foods. I remember my dad having a cooked meat tong and an uncooked tong while grilling. But, I always just assumed that's what you do while cooking. After I grew up a little bit, my mom and dad started to teach me how to keep foods separate while cooking. And my dad was always quick to remind me that opening the fridge too much will "let the cold out". They helped teach me things that I still follow today.
This class has really made me pay more attention to how I treat my food. The two biggest things for me would be eliminating cross contamination and preventing temperature abuse. I have always been slow to put up left-over dinner, but now it's getting put up the right way. This class has also helped me be able to teach my wife some new things in the kitchen. I've made her more aware of what she's touching and placing kitchen items, even if it's unwanted advice sometimes.
I can definitely see myself using the food safety information I've learned from now on. As a future farmer, I appreciate anything that can prevent people from falling sick from food. I will be continuing to try to perfect my food safety skills, and hopefully one day it will come naturally.