Certificate of Achievement
has completed the following course:
Animal Viruses: Their Transmission and the Diseases They Produce
Complutense University of Madrid and L'école nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort
This course covered aspects of viruses that affect domestic and companion animals, and produce important diseases. The course was organized according to the different transmission routes and explored the morphology of the viruses, pathogenesis, clinical signs, diagnosis and control of the diseases.
6 weeks, 5 hours per week
Esperanza Gomez-Lucia
Full Professor, Dept. Animal Health
Complutense University of Madrid
Ana Doménech
Associate Professor, Dept. Animal Health
Complutense University of Madrid
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
- Main characteristics of animal viruses: structure and replication.
- How to handle viruses in a lab.
- The immune response against viruses and how to protect against viral diseases using vaccines.
- Different routes of viral transmission between animals
- Viruses that produce chronic persistent diseases.
- Important/relevant animal diseases as examples of the different routes of viral transmission.
- Mechanisms of pathogenesis of the viruses which use the different routes of transmission.
- Zoonosis: viruses that infect animals and humans.
- Diagnosis and treatment of viral diseases in animals.
- Control and prevention of viral diseases in animals depending on their route of transmission.
Issued on 24th February 2017
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