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 online course focused on different ways of transmission of viral diseases: feco-oral, through bites, arthropods, and air-borne. In addition, several steps dealt with basic concepts about viruses and how the body fights against them, and diseases which are difficult to eliminate from the body because they become chronic. In each transmission route, the general concepts were enriched with one or more viruses transmitted by that route and the diseases they produce.
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
- 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.
- Compare the transmission requirements for the different ways viruses spread: airborne, through the skin (vertebrate/invertebrate/vector bites) shed in faeces, and how to avoid spread through management, such as quarantine, disinfection, etc.
- Describe the epidemiology and the transmission routes of the diseases dealt with in the course and identify which are transmissible to humans (zoonosis).
- 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.
- 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 which vaccines are used for the different viral diseases mentioned, their types, and problems that 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.
Issued on 9th November 2020
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