Animal Health

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Abstract

This subject introduces students to the principles of health and disease in farm production animals, horses and zoo animals. It covers topics such as immunology, epidemiology, parasitology, exotic diseases, stress, pharmacology and animal health economics. Within these topics the subject allows specialisation for horses, farm animals or zoo animals. The subject content emphasises herd health and overall 'enterprise' health and strategic planning, including disease prevention through sound management and husbandry. For those students studying by distance education, this subject has a compulsory 3 day intensive school. During the intensive a number of practical activities will be undertaken to provide a practical application to the theory taught in the subject. Furthermore, the intensive school has been designed to ensure that the learning experiences of students enrolled via distance education are equitable to those of students enrolled internally in the subject.

Syllabus

This subject will cover the following topics: Introduction to herd health;Disease in the individual animal and the disease process;Immunology, vaccination;Epidemiology;Parasitology.Agents of diseaseExotic and zoonotic diseases;Applied pharmocolgy;Animal health economics; andStress in animals.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:

recognise the differences between normal and unhealthy animals within an animal enterprise;

describe and discuss the key concepts involved in herd or collection health, including biosecurity, vaccination, strategic treatments and disease epidemiology;

discuss important examples of endemic and exotic infectious animal diseases and the causative agents, including prions, viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites, and zoonotic agents when important;

discuss examples of non-infectious animal diseases, including metabolic and genetic conditions, that could be significant with regard to herd or collection health;

describe the importance of stress with regard to animal disease, and how to identify stressed animals;

describe economic analysis of animal health decisions; and

demonstrate effective scientific writing and animal health communication skills.

Assumed knowledge

Animal Anatomy and Physiology

Learning activities

Intensive School