Veterinary Science and Microbiology
VSC438 Ecology of Infectious
Disease
Viruses
Dr. Jim Collins
1. Describe the methods (observations, ways, and means) that are used to understand emergence of these two viruses. Are these methods the same?
2. Do you think theses viruses might re-emerge? Why or why not?
3. Should people in parts of China (or elsewhere) be
vaccinated
Foot and Mouth Disease (Fast Moving Disease)
Questions
1. Define virus
2. What is(are) the ecological niche(s) of FMD?
3. Why cannot it seemingly be stopped from spreading around the world?
4. Would this virus make a good Bioterrorism agent? Why?
Rabies, Geography, Raccoons, Vampire Bats, and War.
1. In what populations of animals in the USA is rabies increasing? How does it spread?
2.What are the methods we can use to control it – i.e., affect its ecological niche?
3.Draw the (pathogenesis) pathogenic pathway of the virus in an animal.
4.What biological features of this virus pathway in the host are the most important in preventing us from controlling the virus?
5.Where is Rabies in Arizona? What control measures are being used here?
Questions
1. The horse stabled next to your property has been sick for the past two days and has just been diagnosed with West Nile Virus. What measures should you take to protect 1) your horse; 2) your household from infection?
2. Cities like Philadelphia, New York, and New Orleans suffered from
Yellow Fever in the 1800’s. What disease control measures were taken to protect
the health of the inhabitants of those cities in the 1800’s? Are disease
control measures for Yellow Fever still necessary in the U.S.?
3. Define: Enzootic cycle vs Epizootic cycle; Jungle cycle vs Urban
cycle;
4. What is the ecological importance (to the virus) of trans-Ovarial transmission?
The
Next Flu Pandemic: Where it will come from, where it goes.
1.What is antigenic shift?
2.Diagram and explain how influenza viruses mix, leading to the emergence
of a virulent human strain.
3.Why have influenza viruses from pigs led to virulent human viruses,
but influenza viruses from chickens have not.
4.Describe ways to control influenza viruses in humans
1. Discuss the three ways that a spongioform encephalopathy can arise in an individual.
2.If you suspected that a laboratory bench was contaminated with prions, how would you disinfect it?
3.Why do you think BSE is still arising in other parts of the world, like Japan, last year?
4.Why might there still be a possible epidemic of vCJD?
1. Indicate what would be necessary to eradicate measles ….polio.
2. What lead to lowering of measles deaths (and many other infectious diseases) before the development of vaccines.
3. Using attack rate figures, explain whether the availability of the measles vaccine in the USA will be effective in eliminating all cases.
4. What factor(s) about the virus/host biology make interrupting transmission of measles difficult?
5. How do we know where the virus comes from in an outbreak? Give examples.
Modern
Plague, Ancient Origin - HIV: What happened?
1. What is the evidence that HIV came from SIVcpz?
2. From the standpoint of an RNA virus, what “allows” this to happen?
3. What is so different about the HIV epidemic in the USA and Western Europe vs. that in Africa? Why?
Rodent Reservoirs: Hemorrhagic Fevers, Hantaviruses, and ?
1. With examples, describe the role of rodents in viral hemorrhagic fevers of humans.
2. Define “rodent zoonosis”
3. Using examples of the viruses discussed in this class (all lectures), describe the many ways human disease either evolved and\or continues to occur within this paradigm:
Animal à Animal à Human à Human
4. Does this paradigm describe “evolutionary transmission”, as we have discussed it in classs?