University of Sydney Handbooks - 2012 Archive

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Veterinary Public Health Units of Study

Veterinary Public Health

Graduate Certificate in Veterinary Public Health

A candidate for this award shall satisfactorily complete units of study granting a minimum of 24 credit points of core coursework as follows:
VETS7008 Hazards to Human and Animal Health

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor(s): Dr Tracey Bradley, Dr Stephen Page Session: Semester 1a Classes: Online (Sem 1, weeks 1 - 7) Assessment: Individual report (45%); Article Review (10%); Group Assignment (30%); Participation (15%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is a core unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs. It is elective in the Postgraduate progrm in Veterinary Studies.
After completing Hazards to Human and Animal Health, students will be able to: Describe the key elements of risk assessment and the concepts of hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) intervention; List sources of chemical contamination of food of animal origin and describe how to detect, monitor and prevent these; Explain how the national residue survey works; Discuss the microbial hazards in food of animal origin and the means by which they affect humans, and identify critical control points; Summarise key points of the current antibiotic resistance debate concerning the implications for public health of antibiotic use in animals; Describe critical aspects of important zoonotic diseases acquired by humans by ingestion of animal products and other routes of exposure and identify possible means of prevention; Analyse the factors that influence the emergence of new diseases and discuss changes that need to be implemented in animal and human health surveillance; List the notifiable animal diseases (endemic and emergency) in Australia and discuss the rationale and process for notification and control; describe global trends in livestock disease distribution - both in time and space; Describe the disease control programs for a range of current animal diseases and discuss their health, welfare and political ramifications.
Textbooks
No specific textbook is essential for this unit of study.
VETS7004 Veterinary Epidemiology I

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Session: Semester 1b Classes: Online (Sem 1, weeks 8-14) Assessment: Participation of the student in the weekly online discussions: (15%) group assignment (35%); an individual assignment (40%); online quiz (10%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is a core unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs. It is elective in the Postgraduate program in Veterinary Studies.
After completing the Veterinary Epidemiology I unit students will be able to - discuss epidemiology and the work of epidemiologists in relation to other disciplines; apply the concepts of epidemic theory and herd immunity appropriately to animal disease control issues; contribute to investigations of disease outbreaks and low productivity in animal populations; calculate and interpret the measures of disease frequency and measures of association; select an appropriate epidemiological study design for a specific research question; identify and minimise sources of bias and error in study designs; select appropriate diagnostic tests and interpret their results (at individual and herd level).
Textbooks
Dohoo, I., Martin, W. & Stryhn, H. 2009, Veterinary Epidemiologic Research, 2nd ed., VER Inc., Charlottetown.
PUBH5018 Introductory Biostatistics

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Mr Kevin McGeechan and Associate Professor Petra Macaskill Session: Semester 1 Classes: 2 x 2hr lecture, 10 x 1hr lectures, 11 x 2hr tutorials, 2 x 1hr and 8 x 0.5hr statistical computing self directed learning tasks over 12 weeks - lectures and tutorials may be completed online Assessment: 1x4 page assignment (30%) and 1x2.5hr open-book exam (70%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Normal (lecture/lab/tutorial) Day or On-line
This unit aims to provide students with an introduction to statistical concepts, their use and relevance in public health. This unit covers descriptive analyses to summarise and display data; concepts underlying statistical inference; basic statistical methods for the analysis of continuous and binary data; and statistical aspects of study design. Specific topics include: sampling; probability distributions; sampling distribution of the mean; confidence interval and significance tests for one-sample, two paired samples and two independent samples for continuous data and also binary data; correlation and simple linear regression; distribution-free methods for two paired samples, two independent samples and correlation; power and sample size estimation for simple studies; statistical aspects of study design and analysis. Students will be required to perform analyses using a calculator and will also be required to conduct analyses using statistical software (SPSS). It is expected that students spend an additional 2 hours per week preparing for their tutorials. Computing tasks are self-directed.
Textbooks
Course notes are provided.
VETS7009 Animal Health Economics

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: Dr Richard Shephard Session: Semester 2b Classes: Online Assessment: Participation of the student in the weekly online discussions and other learning activities in the online classroom (15%); online quizzes (50%); report, done in pairs (35%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is a core unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs. It is elective in the Postgraduate program in Veterinary Studies.
After completing Animal Health Economics, participants will be able to: Discuss the importance of animal diseases in efficiency of animal production, consumers' perceptions of animals and animal products, and global trade; Analyse economic problems using basic methods such as partial budgeting, cost-benefit analysis and decision analysis; Detail the critical steps in systems analysis and choose appropriate modelling types and techniques; Describe the uses of linear and dynamic programming, and Markov chain and Monte Carlo simulations; Discuss the basic principles of risk analysis; Explain the basic steps in the decision-making process and the role of risk analysis in this process; Explain the role of decision support systems in animal health management and demonstrate their profitability; Build and interpret spreadsheet models for economic analyses in MS EXCEL; Discuss the importance of Animal Health Economics in decision making, implementation and evaluation of animal health programs, and policy development and implementation processes.
Textbooks
Dijkhuizen AA. Morris RS. Animal Health Economics: Principles and Applications. Post Graduate Foundation in Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, Sydney 1997
VETS7016 Animal Health Data Management

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: TBA Session: Semester 1b Classes: Online Assessment: Participation in weekly online discussions and learning activities (15%); group assignment (30%); individual assignment (55%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is an elective unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs.
After studying this unit students will be able to: Describe the important characteristics of the main epidemiological data types; Develop a data-collection form for an epidemiological study; Design a simple relational database for recording animal health-related data; Manage data in a computer spreadsheet, including importing, exporting, recoding, transforming and summarising data; Undertake descriptive analysis of data using computer spreadsheets or other appropriate software; Undertake descriptive analysis of data using computer spreadsheets or other appropriate software.
Textbooks
Cameron A. Sergeant ESG. Baldock FC. Data management for animal health. 2004
VETS7011 Data Analysis for Policy Making

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: TBA Session: Semester 2a Classes: Online Assessment: Participation in weekly online discussions and learning activities (15%); group assignment (40%); individual assignment (45%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is a core unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs.
In this course, students will work with existing data. Issues of developing a study design will not be dealt with. students will however consider the impact of a particular study design on the interpretation of the data generated. after studying this unit students will be able to: identify potential sources of data and their strengths and weaknesses; identify and apply appropriate analytical and statistical methods for different purposes; analyse data using commonly available software programs; Identify and manage potential bias and confounding in data; describe and interpret the results of data analysis; incorporate the outcomes of data analysis in policy development.
Textbooks
Sergeant ESG, Cameron A, Baldock FC. Epidemiological problem solving. AusVet Animal Health Services, Brisbane, 2004.
VETS7005 Veterinary Epidemiology II

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: TBA Session: Semester 2b Classes: Online (Sem 2, weeks 8 - 14) Prerequisites: VETS7004 Veterinary Epidemiology 1 Assessment: Participation of the student in the weekly online discussions (15%); group assignment (35%); individual assignment (40%); on-line quiz (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is a core unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs. It is elective in the Postgraduate progrm in Veterinary Studies.
After completing Veterinary Epidemiology 2, students will be able to design an appropriate epidemiology study to investigate a specific research question, including the: sampling procedure; data collection tools; database for data storage and manipulation; statistical procedures; methods to manage confounders, clustering and collinearity.
Textbooks
Cameron A. Survey Toolbox for Livestock Diseases. ACIAR, Canberra 1999

Graduate Diploma in Veterinary Public Health

VETS7021 Data Analysis for Epidemiology Research

Credit points: 3 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor: Dr Navneet Dhand Session: Semester 2b Classes: Online Assessment: Participation in online discussions (15%), 2 Written assignments (85%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: On-line
Note: This is an elective unit in the Veterinary Public Health and Veterinary Public Health Management programs.
This Unit of Study, delivered by distance education using an online classroom, will using four case studies introduce students to the application of three statistical procedures (linear regression, logistic regression, survival analysis) in epidemiological research for animal health and public health. Approaches to account for the impact of confounding, effect modification and clustering suitable for these statistical procedures will be discussed.
After completing this unit, students will be able to: identify an appropriate statistical method for testing associations with a categorical and a continuous outcome; conduct descriptive and univariable regression analyses using standard statistical software; build multivariable linear and logistic models for measurg association of a variable with an outcome after accounting for other variables and confounders; interpret the output of regression analyses from standard statistical software and present the results in research papers and project reports; evaluate statistical results presented in epidemiology journals (such as Preventive Veterinary Medicine) and identify clustering in epidemiological data and have basic skills to account for clustering while analysing hierarchical data.
Textbooks
Veterinary Epidemiologic Research Dohoo, I., Martin, W. and Stryhn, H., 2nd edition (2009) AVC, Canada
AND an additional 9 credit points of electives selected from approved units of study.

Master of Veterinary Public Health

VETS7018 Research Paper A

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor(s): Supervisors on arrangement Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: Supervised project. Online seminar. Corequisites: VETS7005 Assessment: Dissertation (90%); Participation in online seminar (5%); Progress Reports (5%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Supervision
Note: Department permission required for enrolment
Note: This is a core unit in the Master of Veterinary Public Health and Master of Veterinary Public Health Management programs.
Completing the research project will enable you to execute research in a professional and ethical manner. A six credit point project should equate to at least 150 hours work.
VETS7019 Research Paper B

Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Program Academic Supervisor: Dr Jenny-Ann Toribio Instructor(s): Supervisors on arrangement Session: Semester 1,Semester 2 Classes: Supervised project. Online seminar. Corequisites: VETS7018 Assessment: Dissertation (90%); Participation in online seminar (5%); Progress Reports (5%). Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Supervision
Note: This is an elective unit in the Master of Veterinary Public Health and Master of Veterinary Public Health Management programs.
Completing the research project will enable you to execute research in a professional and ethical manner. A 12 credit point project should equate to at least 300 hours work.