Gwybodaeth Modiwlau
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Practical | 4 x 3 Hour Practicals |
| Lecture | 11 x 1 Hour Lectures |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|---|---|
| Semester Assessment | Controlled assignment (weighted more heavily because this is a practical subject) | 40% |
| Semester Assessment | Seminar writeup | 10% |
| Semester Exam | 1.5 Hours | 50% |
| Supplementary Exam | 1.5 Hours Students must take elements of assessment equivalent to those that led to failure of the module. | 50% |
| Supplementary Assessment | Students must take elements of assessment equivalent to those that led to failure of the module. | 50% |
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Critically assess the relative importance of sources of emerging diseases in humans and animals.
2. Discuss the role of climate, and environmental factors including biodiversity, in disease maintenance.
3. Critically evaluate the extent to which different hosts and vectors contribute to the maintenance of disease.
4. Choose a suitable modelling approach for a given disease scenario from: dynamic, non-dynamic, and spatial modelling.
5. Create SIR, vector-transmitted and spatial models of disease.
6. Use models to compare scenarios to make decisions regarding disease control.
Brief description
This new module will cover, through lectures and computer practicals, the interconnectedness of ecosystem health and pathogens in populations of animals and humans, using disease examples focused on animal pathogens of one health (i.e. shared) importance. Topical and economically important disease examples will be chosen, from micro- and macro-parasite examples, e.g. tick-borne diseases and Fasciola. The concept of disease emergence will be covered, with the risks and roots of diseases explored. Students will be taught to model a disease outbreak. Through the computer modelling exercises they will be able to compare models of disease, critically examine model assumptions, understand how modelling aids understanding of a system, understand sensitivity and scenario analyses, and make predictions using a model.
Aims
This module aims to give students of animal disease an understanding of the situations in which epidemiological analysis is necessary, in the last year of their degree. It will provide a thorough grounding in the origin of infectious disease outbreaks, fundamentals of infectious disease modelling, contribution of pathogens, hosts, reservoirs, vectors, biodiversity, climate and environment to disease, and optimising control strategies at a population level. Students undertaking this module will be equipped for postgraduate study of disease epidemics, or for writing and/ or comprehending and acting upon epidemiological reports and data encountered in working life.
Content
Lecture topics: Introduction to Epidemiology and One Health
Important ideas in these areas:
Disease emergence and topical examples; impact on Epidemiology of type of pathogen and transmission method; between-species transmission and role of climate, biodiversity and environment; static, dynamic, spatial, climate and stochastic modelling; R0 and control.
Computer Practicals will cover:
Compartmental models and Microparasite Epidemiology
Spatial modelling of disease
Cost-effectiveness of control
Software will include R and Maxent, and Excel where appropriate.
Seminar:
Allocating finite resources to disease control
Module Skills
| Skills Type | Skills details |
|---|---|
| Application of Number | This is a numerical module. |
| Communication | A seminar will require them to communicate within and between teams, and their write ups will demonstrate literacy skills. |
| Improving own Learning and Performance | |
| Information Technology | Practical classes are technology-based. |
| Personal Development and Career planning | I believe successful completion of this module will significantly widen career options; but personal development and personal ability to plan a career is not a component of this module. |
| Problem solving | Modelling exercises are advanced problem solving. |
| Research skills | This will deepen and enhance their quantitative understanding of science. |
| Subject Specific Skills | Appreciation of, and ability to create, epidemiological models, is a companion skill important to all vets and disease biologists, and it is hoped that some graduates of this module will want to pursue careers specialising in this field. |
| Team work | Team work is required in seminar and possible in practicals, but not explicitly assessed. |
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6