Study Guide: Fungi, Algae, Protozoa, Arthropod Vectors

Study guide: fungi, algae, protozoa, arthropod vectors

Questions will focus on the lecture material. Read the related sections of the chapter to reinforce your understanding of the lecture material, but focus on the lecture and on the specific organisms we covered (some of these are in the text and some are not).

Be familiar with the general characteristics of the different classes of eukaryotic microbes.

Know the definition of a biological vector and how this differs from a mechanical vector.

Be familiar with the specific microbes we covered as examples of these different classes/categories of microbes – know their names (genus and species), life cycles, diseases they cause and how these diseases are transmitted.

Coccidiodes immitis / Coccidiodomycosis

Cyanobacteria

Prototheca wickerhamii

Chlorella species

Pythium insidiosum / Pythiosis

Toxoplasma gondii / Toxoplasmosis

Plasmodium species /Malaria

Rickettsia rickettsii / Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever

Study guide: Zoonotic diseases

Review the lecture. Know the definition of a zoonotic disease, a sapronotic disease and an anthropozoonotic disease. If given details on a disease reservoir and transmission cycle, be able to classify it correctly as either a zoonosis, sapronosis or anthropozoonosis. Know what is meant by the classification of zoonotic diseases by the location of the animal reservoir (synanthropic vs. exoanthropic), and understand why the same organism can potentially be associated with either of these, or even both, in a given geographic region. If given an example of the animal reservoir for a specific disease, be able to correctly classify it as synanthropic, exoanthropic or both. Know the definition of a biological vector and how this differs from a mechanical vector.

Be familiar with the examples of zoonotic diseases we covered in lecture, including the etiologic agent of each disease, what type of microbe it is, what factors influence the distribution of these diseases, what the animal reservoir/natural life cycle is and how a human exposure occurs:

Rabies

Tularemia

Q fever

Plague

Toxoplasmosis

Arboviral encephalitides (West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, Western equine encaphalitis)

Be familiar with the examples of anthropozoonotic diseases we covered in lecture.