DEPARTMENT OF VETERINARY SCIENCE
V SC 303 - PRINCIPLES OF ANIMAL DISEASE
-Course Objectives
Effective and efficient maintenance of an animal management system in a humane manner requires a basic understanding of the multiple causes of disease and some prevention programs in common use. Some understanding of scientific and medical terminology is required for the modern animal manager to understand articles appearing in both the lay and scientific press on health management and disease problems.The direction of this course is to introduce students to the principles of animal disease. This requires that the student have relevant background knowledge in biology, nutrition, microbiology and animal husbandry and management.
Individual examples of certain diseases are used to illustrate each of the general causes of disease. While an attempt is made to discuss most of the diseases of major importance in Pennsylvania animal agriculture, the diseases discussed are by no means inclusive of all diseases encountered in all species in this geographical area.
Collectively, the course material should provide an animal manager with a background to better understand and implement decisions that are required to prevent losses from disease. Those decisions may range from governmental mandates to recommendations from a practicing veterinarian for a herd or an individual animal. The inherent, environmental and special factors involved in the etiology of disease and the manipulation of these factors in a disease control program will be emphasized.
The long term goal in an up-to-date herd management program should be disease prevention and control rather than the treatment of disease. To some extent, each clinical case of a disease can be viewed as a failure of prevention, except where accidents and forces of nature such as natural disasters intervene.
There is no attempt to instruct the student in the practice of Veterinary Medicine. The basic foundation of knowledge required for a discussion of the methods of arriving at a definitive diagnosis are beyond the scope of this course.
One of the goals of this course is to provide sufficient background material to the student that they are in a position to make some judgement about the quality of veterinary medical services being provided. Is the return on investment that is being made in veterinary medical services justified?
The level of competency of veterinarians varies. Professional licensure alone does not guarantee maximal competence in all medical conditions in every species of animal. The person operating the facility is a professional in his own field and should be in a position to make subjective and objective judgments about the level of performance of all professionals advising the farm, whether they are veterinarians, nutritionists, or financial advisors.
Methods of treatment of most diseases will not be discussed. Most of the treatment methods rapidly become dated as new drugs and technologies become available.