The number of small and backyard flocks continues to grow throughout the nation. This trend is also occurring in Kentucky. Between January and August close to one million birds were shipped into Kentucky for the non-commercial flocks. These shipments were to 3,890 individual premises. However, shipments directly to farm stores accounted for two-thirds of the birds entering the state. In Kentucky, it is estimated that there are 10,000 premises that have poultry. There is a shortage of veterinarians that will accept small poultry flock owners as clients. This large clientele is being undeserved by the local veterinarians.

Prior experience with conducting in person training programs for veterinarians has shown that there is interest in learning about poultry health. However, the small veterinary practice with one or two veterinarians may not afford to close their office to attend in person training. Based on our experience an online course was developed with the goal is provide opportunities for non-poultry veterinarians to expand their knowledge on Poultry Health and increase their willingness to serve the small poultry flock owners. The online course has 22 modules and was developed by the University of Kentucky with cooperation from faculty at Michigan State University, Utah State University and the staff of The American Association of Avian Pathologists. Veterinarians enrolled in the course have 2 years to complete the course and earn 8 CEUs from the American Association of Veterinary State Boards’ Registry of Approved Continuing Education (RACE).

Fifty- five veterinarians have enrolled in the course with 15 completing the course. The number of participants that had a high and very high interest in providing veterinary care to poultry doubled after completion of the course. Eighty-three percent of participants indicated a medium to high interest in providing veterinarian care. One hundred percent of the participants who completed the course indicated that they had a better understanding of the needs of the small flock clientele. Before completing the course only eight percent of the participants had a high confidence in their ability to service poultry, after completing the course 55 percent had high confidence in their ability. Ninety-two percent of the participants indicated that they would recommend the course to other veterinarians. 

Funding for the development of this course was provided by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture through Federal grant 2020-70024-33090.