Aim and content
This course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD Students from NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at a Danish university, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. This also applies to PhD students from NorDoc member faculties. After the enrollment deadline, available seats will be allocated to applicants on the waiting list.
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
Knowledge
• Understand basic principles of disease development in fish
• Define the function of anatomical structures in fish
• Describe the biology of viral, bacterial and parasitic pathogens in fish
• Define basic principles in fish immunology
• Evaluate the effects of pathogens, environment and fish immunity on fish health and welfare
Skills
• Perform a full autopsy of a fish
• Sample and process organs and tissues for diagnostic purposes
• Identify pathogens based on basic diagnostic tests
• Conduct a histopathological examination of fish tissues
• Perform a molecular identification of fish pathogens (PCR, qPCR)
• Assess basic immunological test results
Competences
• Diagnose parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases of fish
• Critical analyses of factors eliciting diseases in fish
• Assess vaccination strategies for disease control
• Present disease control strategies for wild and cultured fish
• Solve complex fish health problems in team work context
Content
The course has a duration of two weeks. It employs a problem based approach. Following a basic introduction to basic definitions and concepts related to fish biology, anatomy, genetics, nutrition and fish immunology, the students will focus on infections with parasitic, bacterial and viral pathogens in fish. The implications of fish disease in socio-economic development will be treated as well as the impact on environment and ecosystems. The students will gain practical laboratory experience with regard to fish handling and examination. The students will be able to recover samples from diseased fish, perform diagnostic tests by application of molecular techniques, microscopy and prepare samples for histology and immunological investigations. The students will work in teams, analysing and solving specific health problems in fish.
The proportion of theory and practical exercises is 50:50. The theoretical part includes lectures, seminars, group discussions and student presentations concerning specific fish disease situations. The practical part comprises exercises including handling of fish, euthanasia, autopsy of fish, sampling of organs, preparing slides for microscopical diagnosis, preparation of samples for histology, extraction of DNA and performing PCR, qPCR and sequence analyses. The student will work in teams elucidating a specific problem and by use of the acquired skills they will be able to present a diagnosis and suggest one or more control strategies to solve the problem. At the end of the course the students will present a written report and give an oral presentation of their work.