Students will be required to complete 2 pieces of summative assessment.
2-hour examination (70%) (1) (students answer three questions from five)
2000-word Essay (30%) (2)

Students will be provided with formative assessment and feedback via
In-class exercises during the course of the module, plus a revision session

The principles of pathogenicity introduced at Level 1 will be developed by an in-depth consideration of the factors that make organisms pathogens. This will include infectious dose, growth of the pathogen in the host and how pathogens exert damage to the host. Interactions between the host and infectious agent will be discussed, in particular how the host tries to eliminate pathogens and how infectious agents successfully evade the host immune system. The principles of epidemiology will be investigated. The importance of humans and animals as reservoirs will be discussed as well as the importance and variation of transmission of the pathogen from the reservoir to a susceptible host. The importance of disease in natural communities will be discussed, as will issues such as emerging wildlife diseases, and the impacts of disease in the conservation and management of wildlife.

12 2-hour lectures will be used to introduce the various topics covered. Lecture material will be reinforced by a series of student-centred tasks involving various texts, reviews and material available electronically.

Lecture theatre, networked computers to access web based material

Study of Level 1 Disease

Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases: General Field Procedures and Diseases of Birds
http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/pub_metadata/field_manual/field_manual.html

Hudson, P. et al. 2002. The Ecology of Wildlife Diseases. OUP, Oxford

Veterinary Laboratories Agency. Wildlife Disease Surveillance Reports. http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/vla/science/science-end-survrep-qtlyw.htm