Volunteer Asignment: Pig Breeding
YUNGAS PIGGIES GIVE TWO OINKS
FOR DRS. BRUCE AND DONYA OLCOTT
From sunrise to well past sunset each day, volunteer consultants Drs. Bruce and Donya Olcott worked tirelessly to improve the management, nutrition, reproduction, and health of swine throughout the municipality of Coroico. Whether showing University of Carmen Pampa (UAC-CP) students how to collect semen for artificial insemination procedures or giving lectures on swine nutrition to women’s livestock cooperatives, the veterinarians always approached their assignments with knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, and humor.
The Olcotts, both professors of veterinary medicine at Louisiana State University, were given two swine-related assignments to fulfill in the Coroico area of the Yungas. The first assignment, Implementation of an Artificial Insemination Program for Swine at the University of Carmen Pampa had the primary goal of working with the veterinary students at UAC-CP to teach them about swine health and to help them set-up an artificial insemination (AI) program in their swine breeding center. The second assignment,Pig Production Training and Technical Assistance was channeled through the Mayor’s Office of the municipality of Coroico, with the goal of pork production and reproduction practices throughout the municipality. In an effort to combine their unique strengths, the Olcotts tackled both assignments as a team.
