Animal Health (Animal Husbandry II)

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction to Animal Health –
   • Learn to describe common diseases affecting farm animals and the circumstances under which animals contract these diseases – the healthy animal, causes of ill health, preventing ill health
2. Signs & Symptoms of Diseases –
   • The physical symptoms of diseases in farm animals – common methods of handling animals during health assessments, recognising ill health, restraining a horse, sheep handling facilities
3. Disease Classification –
   • Methods used in classifying animal diseases
   • viral diseases, bacterial diseases, parasitic diseases, protozoal diseases, disease types in beef cattle, diseases in sheep
4. Causes and Diagnosis of Disease –
   • The causes of disease and the relevant methods of diagnosis – examining cattle, examining a horse, ticks, tick-borne diseases, diagnosis of diseases
5. Treatment of Disease –
   • Methods used in the treatment of diseases in farm animals – vaccination, the animal first aid kit, tetanus antiserum, animal nursing, quarantine, slaughter, post mortem, disease prevention in cattle, disease prevention in sheep, treatment of parasites in sheep
6. Inflammation –
   • Outline the nature and causes of inflammation in farm animals – the inflammatory response, causes of inflammation, types of inflammation, symptoms of inflammation, inflammatory exudate, treatment of inflammation
7. Fever and Immunity –
   • The biological mechanisms underlying fever and the immune system in farm animals – the fever mechanism, other temperature related disorders, effect of temperature on enzymes, immunity
8. Tissue Repair –
   • The biological mechanisms underlying tissue repair in farm animals – healing of a clean incised wound, healing of an open wound, common horse ailments to recognise
9. Wounds –
   • The biological mechanisms of wounds in farm animals and address different treatment methods for repair of common ailments – types of wounds, first aid treatments, bandaging horses, emergencies
10. Cell changes –
    • The causes and biological mechanisms of cell change in farm animals – neoplasms, tumours and cancers, the course of an infectious disease, death, cancers etc.

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Describe the most prevalent health issues that animals face, the conditions that lead to these issues, and the steps taken to prevent them from occurring.
• Analyze the physical signs that animals are sick.
• Identify the taxonomic classification of animal diseases and pests.
• Describe the main categories of animal pathogenic microorganisms’ diagnostic features.
• Describe the procedures used to treat diseases and pests in farm animals.
• Describe the function of inflammation in animals, including its causes, symptoms, and effects.
• Describe the basic mechanisms that influence and regulate an animal’s immune system.
• Describe the basic mechanisms that affect and regulate an animal’s ability to mend tissue.
• Establish protocols for the care of animal wounds on a farm.
• Describe the procedures involved in animal cellular transformation.
• Identify basic health issues in agricultural animals.

What You Will Do

• List the parameters used to judge an animal’s health, including its state of illness.
• Explain the various causes of animal illness.
• Describe the techniques used to keep animals healthy.
• Create a consistent protocol for a typical farm animal health checkup.
• Explain the signs of an animal’s illness.
• Examine the root causes of two health issues affecting a particular farm animal that have comparable symptoms.
• Determine a health issue based on a set of symptoms.
• Differentiate between various taxonomic types of animal pest and disease organisms using labelled pictures.
• Explain the distinguishing features of four distinct disease-carrying agents in four different farm animals.
• Determine the taxonomic classes that correspond to the three different animals’ common pests and diseases.
• Using examples and a report, describe the traits of viruses.
• Using examples and a report, describe the traits of bacteria.
• Using examples and a report, describe the traits of protozoa.
• Using examples and a report, describe the traits of parasites.
• Using examples and a report, describe the traits of nutritional problems.
• Examine the applicability of 10 stated parameters in predicting the health of a particular breed of farm animal.
• Explain the over-the-counter veterinary medications that are available for usage on farms.
• Describe the vaccination strategies utilised to manage two distinct breeds of farm animals.
• Explain the purposes and methods of using dips to manage external parasites in a particular farm animal.
• List the components of a First Aid Kit for the particular farm animal.
• Develop general operating procedures for tending to sick farm animals.
• Provide an explanation of the quarantine processes while using a specific animal as an example.
• Explain the steps involved in butchering a sick ruminant so that a post-mortem can be performed.
• Write a one-page report with illustrations about the steps taken to examine a ruminant after death.
• Compare the two approaches used to prevent or treat a certain disease in farm animals.
• Choose the best approach for eradicating each of the 10 pests and diseases that affect farm animals.
• Identify and contrast at least five causes of inflammation in animals.
• Create a check list for analysing inflammation in a certain breed of farm animal.
• In a specific case study, describe the inflammatory reaction.
• Compare the many techniques for reducing inflammation in animals.
• Explain how an animal’s immune system works.
• List the substances that can make animals feverish.
• Using a specific case study of a farm animal species, describe the biology of fevers.
• Describe the approaches taken to treat animal fevers.
• List at least five things that affect an animal’s immunological response.
• Describe the features of the immune system in the species of farm animals you have chosen.
• Identify the tissue composition at three different body locations and its vulnerability to various internal and external damages.
• Compare the traits of the various forms of tissue injury.
• List the variables that affect tissue repair, both in terms of repair speed and quality.
• Describe the biological processes that take place as animals’ damaged tissue recovers.
• Compare the many wounding effects—psychological, physiological, and anatomical—to three distinct areas of the body of a particular animal.
• Describe the various biological reactions that take place after a wound, such as tissue repair and infection.
• Create a checklist for the care of farm animals’ wounds.
• Describe the proper course of action for each of the five sorts of injuries sustained by the four different farm animal species.
• Explain the aftercare given to the wounds mentioned above.
• Identify potential causes of farm animal injuries.
• Based on the potential causes mentioned above, provide guidelines for the avoidance of wounds to farm animals.
• List the several reasons for cellular transformation in animals.
• Describe the fundamental mechanisms that lead to cancer in animals at the cellular level.
• Describe the cellular processes involved in animal tissue death.
• Describe the variables that affect the rate and magnitude of cellular change in sick animals.
• Observe an animal’s health throughout the course of four months.
• Watch the veterinarian’s diagnostic procedure and health assessment approach while they examine three different farm animals, and then produce a report on what you learned.
• Identify the root cause of three distinct health issues found in three distinct genera of farm animals.
• Create a list of the diagnostic signs for the common health issues that affect the three types of farm animals.

What Leads to Animal Ill Health?

Injury

There are two ways that an injury might lead to disease:

• The animal can sustain a serious injury that prevents it from operating normally. A bruising or lameness, for example, can be treated and corrected rather simply. But, a major injury, such as a broken limb, may necessitate the animal’s death. In general, it is a matter of agricultural economics to treat significant injuries. It may be best to put an animal to death if the cost of therapy exceeds the animal’s worth. ‘
• The wounds that result from the injury may expose tissues, which then allow bacteria and other organisms to invade them. These illnesses include tetanus, gangrene, septic wounds, and blood poisoning (lockjaw).

Poisons

Animals exposed to poisons experience internal chemical changes that result in cell ageing and death. Two categories of poisons exist:

• those found in plants that animals eat. Certain weeds that grow in pastures can be an issue, and other weeds can alter the flavour of milk and lower the market value of that product.
• those that are substances (like pesticides) that accidentally contaminate the animal. A helpful mineral, such as iron, fluorine, sulphur, or selenium, can occasionally be consumed in excess and result in poisoning.

Hereditary Conditions

Inherited characteristics can cause certain cells in the body to degenerate. An example of this is “dwarfing” in calves.

Nutritional Problems

In any of the following methods, feeding has a significant impact on the health of farm animals:

• giving the animal either little or too much food. A lack of food will reduce an animal’s ability to produce, and in extreme situations, it could result in malnutrition and death from starvation. Animals that are overfed may end up being unhealthy and overweight.
• feeding an animal a ration that is inadequately balanced for its needs. Several distinct deficiency disorders can result from protein, major minerals, trace elements, vitamin, and even water deficiencies.
• feeding an animal a diet that contains a poisonous ingredient
• letting the animal consume food or drink water infected with germs or parasites like worms.
• Feeding an animal a diet that boosts its resistance to bacterial disease can have a good impact on the animal’s health.

Living Organisms

The organisms implicated in this, which is the most frequent cause of illness in animals, are:

• microorganisms, including viruses, bacteria, fungus, and protozoa.
• parasites, including insects, worms, ticks, and lice.

Micro organisms

• Bacteria

Bacteria are tiny creatures that are a part of the plant family. They are made up of lone cells, but as they divide, the cells frequently stay attached, giving the impression that they are multicellular.

Simple cell walls form in the centre as the bacteria grow, which is how bacteria reproduce. The two fresh halves afterwards split apart to become two fresh bacteria.

This procedure can be finished in twenty minutes, therefore if the environment is favourable and there is an abundance of food, thousands of millions of bacteria can be created in a 24-hour period from a single cell. Its extremely quick multiplication explains the disease’s quick progression and how it can quickly spread throughout a herd.

Bacterial diseases include Anthrax, Brucellosis, Lumpy Jaw, Mastitis, and Tetanus, as examples. Yet, it must be emphasised that not all bacteria are disease-causing. Many thrive inside or on an animal’s skin and have no negative effects.

• Fungi

Plants are fungi. Some are so microscopic that they can only be seen under a microscope, while some are huge (like mushrooms). They originate from a single cell and grow by straightforward division into lengthy threads. Moreover, fungi produce spores, which are dispersed and help to spread the illness over a large region. An example of a sickness brought on by a fungus is ringworm.

• Viruses

The tiniest known living entities are viruses. Viruses are one of the most contagious types of illness. They are challenging to treat since they reside inside the cells of other living things and as a result impact those cells as well. Viruses are very contagious.

Swine fever, foot and mouth disease, poultry pest, cattle plague, and the common cold are examples of viral infections.

• Protozoa

Although protozoa have only one cell, they are animals rather than bacteria. There are numerous varieties of protozoa, some of which can infect or kill animals or humans and cause sickness. The disease is frequently spread by flies or other insects.

Redwater (spread by ticks), East Coast Fever and Sleeping Sickness (transmitted by the tsetse fly in Africa), and malaria in humans are a few examples of diseases brought on by protozoa (transmitted by insects).

Parasites

Helminths, an invertebrate class of multicellular organisms, are parasitic worms. Two categories of parasitic worms exist:

• Roundworms
• Flatworms (Flukes or Tapeworms) (Flukes or Tapeworms)

Worms frequently have complicated life cycles that include time spent both inside the infected animal and outside (either in a different animal, or not inside any organism). They may stay in one area of the body while within an animal or they may move across many organs.

Worms are a foreign system that compete with the host for nutrients wherever they are found in the body. They don’t reproduce as quickly as bacteria or fungi, yet one of their enormous, powerful organisms can do a lot of harm. They can still reproduce rather quickly and could grow to be many in a short amount of time. When worms are present, they typically harm an animal’s health either by consuming the food the animal would have otherwise consumed or by directly harming an organ or tissue.

Due to the fact that they exist inside their animal hosts, worms are all considered endoparasites.

Ticks, lice, and other insects are examples of external parasites. Since they feed by biting or sucking blood from the host animal, they are collectively referred to as ectoparasites. This group is split into two categories:

• Mites and ticks are arachnids (adult ticks and mites have eight legs)
• Insects (mature insects have six legs) (adult insects have six legs)

How the Course can Benefit You

Studying animal health teaches you how to recognise illness, comprehend the needs of the animals in your care, and decide the best course of action for each situation.

This course can be taken independently…

Alternatively, combining this course with Animal Husbandry 1 and Animal Husbandry 3 will be most advantageous for you.

It can also be completed as a component of a higher level certification or certificate.

Possibilities After Your Study

This training would be helpful to you if you:

• are presently employed in animal health care or intend to do so in the future
• Want to pursue more education in this subject
• own a farm

Let us assist you in making the best choice for you.

It is better to get in touch with someone before to their enrollment.

We can better assist you if we are aware of your interests, skills, and goals.

Plan a strategy that will give you the best chance of attaining your objectives.