Transcript

Learning outcomes

• Identify the main morphological characteristics of animal viruses and how they are classified into families.
• Describe the differences between DNA and RNA viruses, naked and enveloped viruses, and how this affects variability of the genome and the resistance pattern to physical and chemical agents.
• Describe the general steps of viral infection in a cell and in the animal body.
• Assess the uses and applications of reverse transcriptase in Molecular Biology.
• Compare the requirements for transmission associated with airborne, vector-borne, and faeces-shed viruses and viruses which enter through breaches in the skin and how to avoid spread according to the transmission route.
• Identify which viruses produce the different diseases studied in depth and how they are ascribed to the different families.
• Describe the epidemiology and the transmission routes of the diseases dealt with in the course and collect data for evaluating the origin and spread of rabies, West Nile, Bluetongue and Influenza outbreaks.
• Reflect on the pathogenesis of the different diseases, i.e., how viruses produce each specific disease, and the main clinical signs of the diseases mentioned above.
• Explore which diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans, i.e., zoonosis.
• Reflect on the effects of climate change on the distribution of vectors of viral diseases and, thus, on the spread of arboviral diseases.
• Evaluate which samples and techniques are the most conclusive to diagnose the different viral diseases mentioned above.
• Identify the mechanisms to control the different viral diseases through management, such as quarantine, disinfection, etc., depending on the transmission route of each virus.
• Identify which vaccines are used for the different viral diseases mentioned, their types and problems which may arise from their use.

Syllabus

• Introduction to animal viruses, their form and structure (or morphology), and characteristics. Basic information to help understanding viral diseases in animals and humans.
• Faecal-oral transmission: using parvoviruses and canine parvovirosis as an example.
• Open wounds: focusing on rabies and other zoonotic viruses, which produce diseases in both humans and animals.
• Arthropod transmission: viruses that are carried by insects and ticks, and introduced directly into the bloodstream.
• Airborne transmission: such as influenza, which may be transmitted from birds and pigs to humans.
• Other infections difficult to control because they are persistent: produced by viruses that remain in their host, including herpesvirus and retrovirus.