Course Descriptions

Designed to facilitate integration of learning materials within biomedical sciences and of biomedical sciences with other components in the veterinary medical curriculum.

Restriction(s): Admitted to Year 1 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

An overview of the structure and function of the nervous system of domestic animals, with emphasis on general clinical applications.

Restriction(s): Admitted to Year 1 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

A general introduction to the gross and microscopic anatomy of the common large and small domestic animal species with emphasis on areas of particular functional and clinical significance or biological importance.

Restriction(s): Must be admitted to Year 1 of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) Program.
Note: Students with credit for VBMS 220.8 will not receive credit for this course.

In-depth comparison of the structure and function of the major body systems in common domestic animals, including formation, structure, function of basic cells and tissues, and the normal physiology, biochemistry and microscopic structure of the musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, respiratory, endocrine, renal, and gastrointestinal systems, appropriate to achieve an appreciation of common disease states.

Restriction(s): Must be admitted to Year 1 of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) Program.
Note: Students with credit for VBMS 202.4 or VBMS 223.2 or VBMS 224.9 or VBMS 231.4 will not receive credit for this course.

This course is to provide a basic understanding of how drugs work, and how they interact with the animal that they are administered to, e.g. the processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination. In addition the processes by which drugs can produce unwanted side effects will be studied. Drugs that are used widely in veterinary medicine will be particularly featured.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 1 of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) Program.
Note: Students with credit for VBMS 333.6 will not receive credit for this course.

A general review of the macroscopic and microscopic anatomy of the domestic animals with emphasis on those structures, such as the digestive and reproductive systems, that are of particular importance to students of Animal Science.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Restriction(s): Enrolment in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources.

To provide undergraduate students with an understanding of mammalian and avian physiology, with major emphasis on domestic farm animals. Topics include hematology, respiration, the cardiovascular system, renal physiology and monogastric digestion.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Restriction(s): Enrolment in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources.

To provide undergraduate students with an understanding of mammalian and avian physiology, with major emphasis on domestic farm animals. Topics include ruminant digestion, endocrinology, pre-natal growth, reproduction and lactation.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Restriction(s): Enrolment in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources.
Prerequisite(s): VBMS 324

To provide undergraduate students with an understanding of toxic agents, mechanisms of action, manifestations in affected animals, principles of treatment, food safety, and public health concerns of agents commonly encountered in western Canada. Topics including metals, pesticides, plants, household products, feed additives and industrial chemicals will be covered in the course. Instruction in the course will be provided from a clinical perspective with a major case-based component.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 1 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

Veterinary drug use is highly regulated in Canada. Current topics in the field of regulatory pharmacology will be discussed, including emerging issues affecting drug use and regulation, challenges when designing and implementing veterinary regulations, and the effects of veterinary drug regulations on veterinarians, animal populations and public health.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 2 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program (D.V.M.)
Note: This is a Year 3 elective for students in the D.V.M. program

Using a case-based approach, this course will cover the history of doping in horse sports, the equine sanctioning organizations and their current drug rules, drug detection methodology, and principles of drug depletion.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 2 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program (D.V.M.)
Note: This is a Year 3 elective for students in the D.V.M. program

Covers pharmacology as it applies to the treatment of clinical disease in animals. Principles of clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, drug interactions, and adverse drug reactions will be emphasized. Lectures on specific groups of drugs are delivered with a system-oriented approach, emphasizing rational therapeutic options.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 2 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program.

Provides basic knowledge of the pathways and physiological mechanisms of pain in non-mammalian vertebrates and some invertebrates are provided. Recognition of pain and appropriate treatment, including relevant pharmacology are covered along with clinical application.

Restriction(s): Successful completion of Year 2 of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Program (D.V.M.)
Note: This is a Year 3 elective for students in the D.V.M. program

This is an advanced graduate course focused on ultrastructural features and cellular biology underlying the function of primarily mammalian cellular organelles and interpretation of electron micrographs. The course requires attending lectures micrograph interpretations session, and reading of textbooks, research papers and review articles for group discussions and class presentations.

Weekly hours: 4 Tutorial hours
Permission of instructor required.

This advanced level course in endocrinology will focus to provide a well-rounded and up-to-date curriculum to address both basics and advancement in comparative (multi-species) endocrinology. Graduate students enrolled in this course will attend lectures, laboratories on endocrine research techniques, prepare essays and present to the class.

Note: Senior undergraduate endocrinology or physiology courses are encouraged, but not mandatory.

Provides an in-depth coverage of monogastric gastrointestinal physiology, stressing those aspects related to the understanding of gastroenteric disease.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Topics will be hormones of reproduction, sexual differentiation and maturation, physiology and endocrinology of male reproductive system, reproductive cyclicity in the female, gestation and parturition, reproductive behaviour, and the seasonality of reproductive activity.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours

Discusses subclinical manifestations to toxic agents. The emphasis will be on immunological and behavioral alterations produced by a variety of chemical agents. Animal models and testing methods used to evaluate the effects will be discussed, along with various public health considerations and significance.

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 1 Seminar/Discussion hours
Prerequisite(s): Registration in a graduate program in Toxicology or Veterinary Biomedical Sciences or permission of the instructor.

An advanced course in research techniques in the field of endocrinology and reproduction. Students will spend time in three different research laboratories learning techniques of value to their research work and future career. The course aims to diversify and strengthen the student's preparation in modern research approaches.

Weekly hours: 3 Practicum/Lab hours
Note: Students may take this course more than once for credit, provided the topic covered in each offering differs substantially. Students must consult the Department to ensure that the topics covered are different.

The objectives of this course are to first examine multi-organ integration in the control of cardiovascular physiology. Specifically, ventricular/arterial coupling as well as how cardiac, pulmonary, renal, endocrine and/or neural systems integrate with cardiovascular responses for homeostatic control of blood pressure will be examined. This course will also explore how these homeostatic mechanisms are altered in pathological processes associated with major human diseases and toxic agents encountered by humans.

Note: VBMS 840 is suggested as a prerequisite, but not required.

This course is designed to provide new graduate students with the professional skill set associated with being a successful scientist. Through a combination of lectures, discussions, presentations and assignments, the students will learn about time management and productivity, the scientific method and scientific inference, ethics and biases in science and the peer-review and publication process. Students will develop their communication skills (written and oral) with a focus on audience targeting. Students will learn the foundations of interpersonal and managerial skills and the importance of self-sufficiency and independence to nurture success. Each student will draft a professional plan to prepare for the life beyond graduate school.

Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of experimental design, data analysis and data reporting. The course will cover major univariate parametric and non-parametric tools, including more complex ANOVA designs (nested, repeated-measures, ANCOVAs), as well as a few multivariate ones (MANOVA, PCA).

Weekly hours: 3 Lecture hours and 2 Practicum/Lab hours
Prerequisite(s): Any undergraduate statistics course.

Study of a special topic in the biomedical sciences for which no formal course exists and pertinent to the candidate and their goals. This is general enough to cover the goals of the old courses from the two old departments.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Study of a special topic in the biomedical sciences for which no formal course exists and pertinent to the candidate and their goals. This is general enough to cover the goals of the old courses from the two old departments.

Weekly hours: 3 Seminar/Discussion hours

Graduate students in the department are required to attend and participate. The staff and visiting scientists also contribute to the course. Interested undergraduates may be invited to attend and participate.

Students writing a Master's thesis must register for this course.

Students writing a Ph.D. thesis must register for this course.