VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH/VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH & EPIDEMIOLOGY (SYLLABUS FOR ICAR’S JRF/SRF(PGS) )

SYLLABUS FOR THE ALL INDIA COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR ADMISSION TO DOCTORAL DEGREE PROGRAMMES AND THE AWARD OF

JRF/SRF (PGS)

23 VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH/VETERINARY PUBLIC HEALTH & EPIDEMIOLOGY 

Unit 1: Veterinary Public Health

Definitions, concept of Public Health, Intersectoral approach to Human Health, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Public Health, Human health goals, veterinarians participation in public health and justifications, Veterinary Public Health Unit – its dimensions and functions, National and International organizations related with Public and Veterinary Public Health, Rural health, Role of Public Health Veterinarians in Public Health, Health Delivery System. 

Unit 2: Milk Hygiene 

Definitions, Dairy Industry and milk hygiene in India and other countries, Microbiology, of milk and milk products, microbial spoilage of milk and its products, Bacteriophage, Contamination of milk and its products, Public health aspects of residues: agricultural chemicals, antibiotics and drugs, toxic metals, plant toxins, mycotoxins and adulterants, Milk borne diseases, Milk hygiene, Hygienic aspects of production of milk and processing and manufacture of milk products, Clean milk production, Prevention of contamination by sanitation at dairy farm, collection centers, milk processing and manufacturing plants. Pasteurization, Sterilization, Standards. Quality control tests applied to milk and milk products. 

Unit 3: Meat Hygiene 

Definitions, Meat industry and meat hygiene in India and other countries. Raising meat food animals and birds, their trade and transport. Hygienic aspects of slaughter, bleeding, dressing and processing and manufacture of carcass meat and meat products. Rigor mortis, Emergency and causality slaughter. Abattoir/ Meat plant Sanitation, Microbiology of meat and their products. Sources of contamination, Disposal and reclamation of slaughterhouse wastes and by-products and associated public health problems. Spoilage of meat and meat products, Preservation of meat. Meat food safety, Ante mortem and post mortem examination, Inspection of poultry meat, eggs, fish and meat from game animals, Judgment, Indices of sanitary quality, National and International standards, Bacteriological, serological and biochemical tests for quality control, substitution and adulteration. 

Unit 4: Food-borne Infections and Intoxications 

Definitions, Classifications of Food borne diseases, Meat-borne diseases, Milk-borne diseases, Infections and intoxications traced to consumption of fish/eggs, Fast/Street/Convenience foods, Epidemiological characteristics of food-borne infections and intoxications, Sources of pathogens and factors favouring for poisoning, bacterial, viral, protozoan, helminthic, mycotic and chemical food poisoning, Epidemiological investigation of food-borne infections and intoxications, Food specific attack rate. Odd ratio, Detection of foodborne pathogens and their toxins. Management of food poisoning. 

Unit 5: Zoonoses 

Definitions, Concept and classification of Zoonoses, Ecological aspects of Zoonoses, Wild animals-, cold blooded animals - domestic animals -, and aquatic life, -associated Zoonoses, Vectors-, milk-, meat-, egg-, fish- and waterspread Zoonoses, Occupational zoonoses, Nosocomial zoonoses, xenozoonoses, Nationally and internationally emerging and re-emerging Zoonoses, Epidemiology of bacterial, rickettsial, viral, parasitic and mycotic Zoonoses, Principles of Zoonoses management: methods of prevention, control and eradication of Zoonoses. 

Unit 6: Environmental Hygiene 

Natural sources of water, water hygiene, Pure and wholesome water; microbial contamination and chemical pollution of water, Impurities in water, plankton, Purification and sanitization of water, Waterborne diseases, Microbiological examination of water, Potable water, Standards for drinking water. The atmosphere. Air Pollutants, Air-borne pathogens and diseases, Ventilation, Methods of air purification. Agricultural chemicals, industrial wastes, domestic and farm effluents polluting environment – and associated hazards and preventive measures. Antibiotic and pesticide residues and their effect on health. Waste-recycling, Methods of disposal of dead animals. Rodents and Vector control measures. 

Unit 7: Epidemiology 

Definitions, Epidemiology, Epizootiology, Causal association, concept of infection, Theory of natural nidality, Ecological basis of diseases, Disease transmission, Epidemic process, Distribution of diseases in space and time, Epidemiological hypothesis, Types of epidemiological studies, Epidemiological survey, surveillance, monitoring of diseases, experimental epidemiology, epidemiological measurements, Predictive epidemiology, Epidemiological models, Sero-epidemiology. Use of information technology and computer applications in disease monitoring, Epidemiological investigation and evaluation of intervention measures. Scope of Epidemiology: Definitions, uses, components, subdisciplines and types of epidemiology, Concept of causality and epidemiological hypothesis, Measures of describing disease occurrence and frequency in animal populations, epidemiological rates and ratios, Determinants of disease, epidemiological triad, Transmission and maintenance of infection, ecology of disease and landscape epidemiology, Patterns of disease, Survey of animal disease , surveillance and monitoring, Data collection, management ,storage, retrieval and presentation, Epidemiological studies: observational and experimental, Serological epidemiology, Economics of animal disease, Control and eradication of disease, Use of information technology and computer applications in disease monitoring, Epidemiological investigation and evaluation of intervention measures. 

Unit 8: Experimental Animal Medicine 

Occupational health and safety in the care and use of research animals. Breeding, care and management of experimental animals, Production of gnotobiotic, germfree, specific pathogen free, transgenic, syngenic animals and tailor-made animals in relation to public health, provisions of Animal welfare and Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. 

Unit 9: Health Education 

Health education, communication techniques, Participatory programmes for awareness creation among agricultural workers, butchers, laboratory staff and those engaged in zoological gardens, laboratory animals rearing, processing of animal produce about occupational hazards and hazards to consumers. 

Unit 10: Standard Guidelines and Legislation 

Definitions, standards/guidelines of products and product ingredients. Hazards Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Good Laboratory Practices (GLP), Milk and Milk Product Order (MMPO), Meat Food Products Order (MFPO), Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality assurance and food safety management systems, Bureau of Indian Standards, International Organization for Standards, Codex Alimentarius, World Trade Order, Sanitary and Phyto-sanitary (SPS) measures, Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), National and International Standards related to milk, meat, fish and their products and hygienic standards to ensure safety to domestic and foreign consumers of products of animal origin.

Unit 11: Microbiology in Public Health 

Food microbiology, Characters of food bacteria, moulds, yeast and virus, Classifications of food microbes according to their requirements for growth – temperature, acidity, moisture, oxygen and salt concentration, resistance to microenvironment, Food processing and preservation methods. Pathogen- virulence factors, microbial enzymes, toxic metabolites and other molecules associated with pathogenic mechanisms. Resistance mechanism of survival in environment in and outside the host, Antigens eliciting protective and diagnostic antibodies, Microbiological, Serological, Biological and Nucleotide based diagnostic methods. Issues on bioterrorism.