35474 - Infectious Diseases of Companion Animals

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student acquired: - knowledge about the etiology, epidemiology, symptomatology, diagnosis and control of infectious diseases of companion animals; - the ability to apply this knowledge in the interpretation of clinical cases; - to able to make judgments and estimates health care even if they have incomplete data; - to able to manage and communicate information to both specialists to non-specialists in the field; - to achieve a high level of operational capacity in the control of diseases in the context of multicat/dog environment.

Course contents

Course contents

The course of Infectious Diseases of Companion Animals is a component of the I.C. "Communicable diseases and epidemiology".

The educational objective of the I.C. is to: a) provide basic knowledge relating to veterinary epidemiology and the correlations to the other veterinary disciplines; b) to provide knowledge relating to the etiology, epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis and prophylaxis of the main transmissible pathologies of livestock and companion animals; c) acquire the ability to apply this knowledge in the interpretation of health data and in the management of direct and indirect prophylaxis. At the end of the I.C.: a) the student will be able to make judgments and health assessments even with incomplete data; b) will be able to manage and communicate information to both specialists and non-specialists in the subject; c) will achieve a high operational capacity in the control of diseases.

Knowledge and skills to be acquired

The goal of the "Infectious Diseases of Companion Animals" course is to provide solid knowledge on the main infectious diseases that affect dogs and cats. For this purpose, each disease will be treated according to the classic study model of an infectious disease: historical notes, characteristics of the etiological agents, epidemiological aspects (geographical spread, animals hosts, mode of transmission), pathogenesis, symptoms, anatomical-pathological lesions, diagnosis (clinical, differential, laboratory, direct and indirect), prophylaxis (direct and indirect). At the end of the course, students will be able to: - recognize the clinical signs of the main infectious diseases of dogs and cats and draw up a list of diagnostic-differential hypotheses; - implement a diagnostic protocol to confirm the suspicion of an infectious disease; - apply the control and prevention strategies of infectious diseases during an epidemic outbreak; - identify and adapt the vaccination protocol according to the epidemiological risk related to the environment, geographic area and lifestyle;

Infectious diseases of dog :
Canine parvovirus, Canine Distemper, Leptospirosis, Canine Ehrilichiosis/anaplasmosis, Canine Infectious Hepatitis

Infectious diseases of cat: Feline Panleukopenia, Feline Infectious Peritonitis, Feline Respiratory Upper Disease (Feline Herpesvirus, Feline Calicivirus, Chlamydophila felis), Feline Leukemia, Feline Immunodeficiency

Guidelines for the vaccination of dogs and cats

Readings/Bibliography

Slides of the lectures are available on Virtual Learning Enviroment of Unibo

https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Recommended text:Greene's Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat 5th Edition - March 15, 2022 – Jane Sykes.

Teaching methods

The course comprises academic (frontal) lectures, and practical lectures. 

The course is made of academic (frontal - 30 hours) and practical lessons (6 hours).

a.        academic (frontal): Frontal lectures carried out by slides show and watching of movies; 

b.       practical (tutorial supervised or hands on): Practical lectures carried out by groups of student with discussion of clinical cases under the supervision of a tutor (problem solving approach). Emphasis on collection and conservation of biological samples and  implementation of a protocol laboratory diagnosis will done. Vaccination protocols will be discussed.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the student consists of an written test.

The final mark of the integrated teaching course "Trasmissible Diseases and epidemiology" results from the mean of the marks obtained in the final evaluations of the single different parts that comprise the teaching course. The marks obtained in the different part of the exam do not expire. Since the course is an integrated Course, the teacher responsible for the verbalization of the marks is prof. Fabio Ostanello.

The evaluation of the student on teaching course "Infectious diseases of companion animals" consists of a written examination.

Written examination

- Four Multiple Choice Questions max 6 points. Each multiple choice question has three alternatives and only one correct answer. The student select one choice that is the only correct answer to the question. The possible scores are -1 penality (incorrect or no answer) or 1.5 (correct).

- Three short open questions where the student given a brief description of issue. Two short open questions are valued max 10 points each; one short answer question is valued max 4 points. The score range depending on the accuracy of the answer and adherence to the question.

The time allotted for the written test is 50 minutes. During the examination, the use of support materials such as books, notes computing devices is prohibited.

CORRECTION / EVALUATION GRID OF OPEN ANSWER QUESTIONS

Advanced level: 28- 30L

• Understanding of the question / Adherence to the track: complete;
• Completeness, coherence and degree of synthesis of the answer: Complete, coherent and precise, reworked;
• Content development, argumentation: In-depth, coherent, well-articulated and original;

Intermediate level: 24-27

• Understanding of the question / Adherence to the track: adequate;
• Completeness, coherence and degree of synthesis of the answer: Articulated, precise and correct;
• Content development, argumentation: Substantially articulated and coherent;

Basic level: 18-23

• Understanding of the question / Adherence to the track: Overall adequate and correct;
• Completeness, coherence and degree of synthesis of the answer: Essential, schematic, but not always precise;
• Content development, argumentation: Essential content and schematic and simple argumentation;

Base level not reached

• Understanding of the question / Adherence to the track: Superficial, incomplete and / or incorrect, poor, null;
• Completeness, coherence and degree of synthesis of the response: Inaccurate, superficial and incomplete; nothing;
• Content development, argumentation: Incomplete content and superficial or non-existent argumentation;

The student can refuse the verbalization of the proposed positive grade at least once (according to the University Didactic Regulations ART. 16, paragraph 5).

Students with disabilities or SLDs can contact the course owner to take advantage of additional teaching aids both during lessons and in the final exam

Teaching tools

Slide projector for theoretical lessons, movies, computers, smartphone for interactive lessons

During lectures, the game-based learning platform "kahoot" is used to encourage active learning by multiple choice questions to the audience. The software will also be used in the case of "problem solving" practical lessons and for the discussion of clinical cases.

Office hours

See the website of Mara Battilani