KHA program

As some of you know, I have been slowly working my way through the Koi Health Adviser (KHA) program.

http://www.akca.org/portfolio-view/kha-program-2/

On the 18th & 19th of June I attended the annual wet lab that is usually the final section for all KHA students. Unfortunately I was not far enough along to graduate and get my certificate at the banquet. Hopefully in the next few months I will get everything done. It is a very comprehensive program, packed full of excellent information. There were 52 people registered for the wet lab this year. Some were just there to listen to the speakers and check things out, but most were current KHA students. All in all I had a great time and learned a lot. Dissecting the Koi is a little more than I was expecting, but it provided some great insight into what is going on in the inside of my favorite fish.

Steve

I checked out the course outline. I would love the same to be offered by some of the other national associations. What a great way to cultivate the koi hobby ! This looks like a well resourced and coordinated effort in a strong association.

alexmtl wrote:I checked out the course outline. I would love the same to be offered by some of the other national associations. What a great way to cultivate the koi hobby ! This looks like a well resourced and coordinated effort in a strong association.

Well resourced and coordinated is probably a great description. They represent thousands of members world wide and a lot of them have deep pockets. I forget the exact figure they threw out at the meeting but AKCA has donated somewhere in the neighborhood of $150,000US to OSU for Koi Herpes Virus(KHV) research over the past few years.

The KHA program has some very well informed people behind it. The instructor from last weeks portion was instructed by a certified aquatic veterinarian with over 20 years in the industry. His day job is being in charge of all livestock for PetsMart in Canada and the USA.

When I first signed up for this I was expecting a pretty basic online course with tests containing a bunch of multiple choice questions that I could probably answer without reading the course material. I could not have been further from the truth. So on I plow into the next section, with the hope of getting through the remainder of the course by year end. They have more advanced courses beyond this one as well, but I need to get through this one first.

Steve

Sbenson11 wrote:
The KHA program has some very well informed people behind it. The instructor from last weeks portion was instructed by a certified aquatic veterinarian with over 20 years in the industry. His day job is being in charge of all livestock for PetsMart in Canada and the USA.

When I first signed up for this I was expecting a pretty basic online course with tests containing a bunch of multiple choice questions that I could probably answer without reading the course material. I could not have been further from the truth.

I checked the course outline and the DVM is quite involved in the scientific aspects. If only there were DVMs who specialized in other species of fish (!!). The vet reminded me of one the profs in my grad course at UofG. It is a great privilege to gain this knowledge from a subject matter expert, specialized in koi. Koi must be different in physiology, anatomy and nutrition from their warm water cousins as they have evolved so divergently. I am intrigued in the course content.

What I find interesting is the business structure of the AKCA. The main association is not for profit, but a wholly owned subsidiary is KoiUSA, a for-profit organization that publishes their journal and communicates and promotes their hobby. This is brilliant !

Well Steve good luck with finishing the course and I know Tigger and the gang will appreciate it when you are done. I also know you will pass this knowledge on as needed to us and we will be ever grateful.