The impact of an introductory animal handling course on undergraduate students who lack previous livestock handling experience.

A majority of animal science undergraduates have limited livestock handling experience when they come to college. To address this issue, a course based on livestock handling, safety, and welfare was implemented in the Department of Animal Science at Iowa State University. This study aimed to (i) determine whether the course was effective at improving the comfort level of a student while handling livestock and (ii) identify demographic factors that contributed to student performance in the course.