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 aims of this teaching course is to provide essential information on the major infectious disease of cats and dogs. The student acquires the knowledge about etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, anatomo-pathological lesions, diagnosis and control of companion animals infectious diseases.

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

Readings/Bibliography

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

https://virtuale.unibo.it/

Recommended text: Greene C.E. - Infectious Disease of the Dog and the Cat, 4th  ed., Elsevier, 2012.

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). Normally, the course is held in presence. In case of necessity, due to the persistence of the threat of COVID-19, academic and practical leccons could be held, partially or totally,

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.

Assessment methods

The evaluation of the student consists of an written test. The examination of the courses included Epidemiology, Infectious diseases of farm animals and Infectious disease of companion animals, that take place at the same time, usually on the same day and, given the close integration of the evaluation moments, it is not possible support them separately.

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.

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