| Department of Veterinary Pathobiology | |||||||||||||||
| Earliest Possible Year | |||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1 semester | ||||||||||||||
| Credits | 6 (ECTS) | ||||||||||||||
| Course Level | MSc | ||||||||||||||
| Examination | evaluation of project report Aid allowed Description of Examination: 13-point scale, internal examiner | ||||||||||||||
| Organisation of Teaching | Lectures: 1 course module per week. Exercises: 3 timer hours per week. | ||||||||||||||
| Block Placement | E7, fall Wednesdag 13-16 Lectures and practicals weeks 36-41 | ||||||||||||||
| Teaching Language | English | ||||||||||||||
| Optional Prerequisites | 046313 Parasite Systematics | ||||||||||||||
| Restrictions | 20 (Priority is given to students in the Parasitology study programme) | ||||||||||||||
| Course Objectives | |||||||||||||||
| It is the aim of the course to provide the student with an introduction to the distribution and importance of parasitic zoonoses for livestock production, human health and socio-economy and how the parasites are diagnosed and controlled. Special emphasis will be given to the relative risk the different parasites poses and how we as scientists communicate our knowledge on these risks to the societies. | |||||||||||||||
| Course Contents | |||||||||||||||
| Zoonotic infections are increasingly attracting attention as old zoonoses (previously described) are re-emerging and as new organism transmitted from animals to humans are discovered. In contrast to the focus given to the bacterial and viral infections transmitted from animals in the western world, parasitic zoonoses attract only minor attention. Several factors influencing the transmission of parasites have changed with the changes in society, proximity of wildlife and animal production practices. How does risk of parasitic zoonoses change when we are raising pigs on pasture? In the Scandinavian region still new zoonotic parasites are recognised in our fauna, e.g. the small fox tapeworm which can lead to severe disease or death in humans. Other infections with zoonotic parasites are increasingly recognised as a problem associated to travel activities and in refugees/immigrants. In many East and Central European countries zoonotic parasites are of major importance for economy and health and causes severe disease in thousand of people, and in the developing world parasitic zoonoses are affecting the health of millions of people and causes significant economical losses. Several western countries have realized that zoonotic parasites are important contaminants of food and water. It is assumed that a numbers of infection with zoonotic parasites are not diagnosed as a result of lacking diagnostic capability or awareness of the disease. E.g. in industrialized areas of Europe, North America and Australia the waterborne parasites Cryptosporidium have been diagnosed in more than ½ million humans in the past 10 years, but is this only the top of the iceberg. Other food-borne zoonotic parasites, e.g. Toxoplasma and Trichinella are increasingly causing severe disease among humans in EU. It is a major importance to give the students an understanding of the relationship between economy and health, control and legislation in the area. | |||||||||||||||
| Teaching And Learning Methods | |||||||||||||||
| The course will include lectures, seminars and demonstrations with examples of different zoonotic parasites (food and water-borne, vector-borne and surface contaminating). There will be a focus on the modern methods for the detection of such organism. The course includes excursions to institutions working on relevant issues within the area. The course is terminated by a theoretical report on a zoonotic parasitic problem. | |||||||||||||||
| Course Litterature | |||||||||||||||
| Palmer S.R., Lord Soulsby, Simpson D.I.H. 1998. Zoonoses. Oxford University Press. | |||||||||||||||
| Course Coordinator | |||||||||||||||
| Christian M.O. Kapel, chk@life.ku.dk, Department of Agriculture and Ecology/Section of Zoology, Phone: 35332690 | |||||||||||||||
| Study Board | |||||||||||||||
| Study Committee NSN | |||||||||||||||
| Course Scope | |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||