Overview

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Academic contacts

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Offerings

MURDOCH-S1-INT-2018-ONGOING

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Enrolment rules

Enrolment in Bachelor of Animal Science OR Animal Science major OR Animal Health major.

Other learning activities

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Learning activities

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Learning outcomes

1.
To be able to explain the concept of disease.
2.
To be able to explain how disease occurs, using examples from the nine broad categories of disease processes (see ‘Unit Content’ below). Gain an understanding of the principle responses of the body and its tissues to injury, thus allowing understanding of specific diseases later in your undergraduate studies and throughout your career.
3.
Be sufficiently knowledgeable in general pathology to be able to understand new developments in disease understanding and prevention in your professional career in animal production systems. To apply your knowledge of the processes of disease such that you understand the potential animal husbandry implications of these processes as they are represented by the main production limiting diseases of sheep & goats, beef cattle, dairy cattle, pigs, poultry, farm working dogs and horses.
4.
Have sufficient background in pathology to be able to communicate with other livestock industry professionals, and to be able to comprehend pathology topics in agricultural/animal management and research literature in the sciences.
5.
To have an appreciation of how animal health and welfare issues may affect trade in animals and animal productsTo have an appreciation of public health issues related to animal health and disease.

Assessments

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Additional information

Unit content:Pathology is the study of structural and functional abnormalities in cells, tissues, organs and body systems. These abnormalities are known as disease. Knowledge of diseases and an understanding of disease processes are crucial to the diagnosis and treatment of disease (medicine) and the design and interpretation of scientific research. In this unit, we will be focussing on vertebrate pathology, where the underlying pathological processes in each animal group are remarkably similar. For the purposes of simplicity, the term “animal” is used in a fairly general way, incorporating both humans and non-primate species, as the pathological processes are essentially the same. Disease occurs when there is a departure from a state of health. The science of pathology studies this disease. We consider "health" to be a state of normality. There is a range of variation in structure and performance within fairly arbitrary limits that define this normality. A state of ill health observed during life is called a clinical disease. This usually manifests as a structural tissue change in an organ system, or it may be purely functional (e.g. a biochemical abnormality in an organ which, although functionally defective, appears structurally normal). Pathology is the study of disease at its most fundamental level. All individuals working in the Biological Sciences can benefit from a basic understanding of pathological processes. An ability to recognise a “departure from normality” and understand pathological processes assists the scientist to design and interpret research and understand publications. Similarly, an understanding of the mechanisms of disease will assist in the formation and implementation of occupational health and safety regulations, quarantine procedures, and other areas where an understanding of interactions between the body and environmental conditions is important. There are 9 broad categories of pathological processes: 1. Circulatory Disturbances 2. Acute Inflammation 3. Healing and Repair 4. Chronic Inflammation 5. Cell Death, Necrosis and Calcification 6. Adaptive Tissue Responses 7. Storage diseases, Pigments and Infiltrates 8. Neoplasia 9. Teratology These are the basic reactions the vertebrate body can take in response to a disease-causing agent. During the core lecture series, workshops and seminars each of these pathological processes will be reviewed with the aim of providing you with an understanding of how and why these mechanisms of disease occur. This will enable you to both predict how the body will respond to a disease-causing agent and determine what the likely cause(s) of disease are. Whilst the lectures will use examples of disease in a variety of animals (including humans) to illustrate the processes, the workshops will exclusively use examples of diseases of production animals.