Online Training Course
Zoonotic Disease: Bioterrorism and Beyond
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FREE training Multi–media training with video Nursing contact hours |
Intended Audience
Environmental health professionals, and other public health professionals, first responders, nurses, infectious disease physicians, sanitarians, animal control personnel, and others who would like to gain a greater understanding of zoonotic disease basics.
Course Description and Objectives
This online training course will introduce zoonotic disease basics to non-veterinarians, and explore zoonotic diseases as potential bioterrorism agents with emphasis on the Category A zoonotic agents. The topics of food security and agroterrorism are examined and the framework for disease surveillance is presented. A case study explains the steps of zoonotic disease outbreak investigations and details the role of environmental health professionals. No pre-requisites.
At the end of this course you will be able to:
- Define zoonotic disease and become familiar with the most common routes of transmission from animals to humans
- Understand that zoonotic diseases account for five of the six bioterrorism Category A agents and become familiar with these agents
- Understand that outbreaks are commonly caused by zoonotic agents
- Explain the difference between bioterrorism and agroterrorism, realizing that animal populations as well as human populations may be targets for terrorists
- Compare animal disease surveillance systems to human disease surveillance systems
- Demonstrate mastery of fundamentals of zoonotic diseases and outbreak investigation by working through case studies and outbreak scenarios
- Describe the public health competencies for environmental health staff
Modules (Total learning time: approx. 2.75 hours)
Module 1: Zoonotic Diseases 101 and Food Security Issues: An introduction to zoonotic diseases and their effect on food safety and security (includes quiz) |
35 minutes |
| Module 2: Environmental Health Responsibilities and Competencies: An overview of the core competencies for health officials (includes quiz) | 39 minutes |
| Module 3: Category A Diseases: An overview and history of category A zoonotic diseases (includes quiz) | 45 minutes |
| Module 4: Mail Order Salmonella: A case study involving a salmonella outbreak in a hatchery (includes quiz) | 28 minutes |
Module 5: Disease Surveillance-Human and Animal: The differences in observing disease in humans and animals (includes quiz) |
25 minutes |
Download course flyer (PDF)
Presenters
Melinda Wilkins, DVM, MPH is lead faculty for this training course and is Director, Division of Communicable Disease at the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH). Prior to joining MDCH, she was an epidemic intelligence officer with the CDC, and an area epidemiology officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Her research interests include zoonotic diseases, specifically Mycobacterium bovis, and surveillance system development and evaluation.
Nancy Frank, DVM, MPH is Assistant State Veterinarian with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and previously worked in private veterinary practice. Dr. Frank has a special interest in emerging and zoonotic diseases and is board certified by the American College of Veterinary Preventive Medicine.
Christine Petersen, DVM, PhD is Assistant Professor in the Department of Veterinary Pathology and staff at the Center for Food Security and Public Health (CFSPH) at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Iowa State University. Prior to joining CFSPH, she was at the Harvard School of Public Health. Her research interests include zoonotic disease prevention and education and host-parasite interactions, specifically Leishmania sp. interactions with host dendritic cells.
John Tilden DVM, MPH is Manager of the Food Safety Planning and Response Unit at the Michigan Department of Agriculture (MDA). Prior to joining MDA, he served in various public health and disease control positions including epidemic intelligence officer with the CDC, veterinary medical officer with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, environmental health officer with the U.S. Air Force, and veterinarian in private practice focusing primarily on food animal herd health. His research interests include emergency preparedness, food safety and security, zoonotic diseases, and epidemiologic and surveillance capacity development.
To begin course:
- Register - You must log in to your account (or set up an account) and sign up for this course. Access your account by email address and password.
- Go to "My Courses" (a tab at the top of your screen), find the course and click on "Begin Course."
- Each time you go back to this training, simply log into your account and repeat step 2 above. To log into your account, click on My Account. This link is also available at www.mipreparedness.org.
There are five instructional modules. The modules are self-paced and it is not necessary to complete all of them during one session. You may stop and start again at any time. Your account holds quiz results between sessions.
To receive Continuing Education credit, you must:
- Register.
- View modules.
- Successfully pass all quizzes which appear in the four instructional modules. You may take and pass quizzes during separate learning sessions.
- Complete an evaluation.
- Once your evaluation is complete, you will automatically receive a pdf certificate right on your desktop.
Credits
Nurses - 3.4 Contact Hours: The Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Michigan Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses' Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.
Technical Notes
- You will need a computer with high speed connection. (DSL or higher)
- Speakers or headphones
- Internet Explorer or Safari (Mac) preferred, but Firefox and Netscape are acceptable.
- Allow pop-ups to show movies. In Internet Explorer, when a pop-up starts, simply hold down the Control key.
- Adobe/Macromedia Flash Player (free) must be installed on your computer.
This project is supported under a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, number U90/CCU524243-02.
09/25/06