Learning outcomes

This course of Animal Physiology III aims to provide you with the theorical knowledge and practical capacities, in order to transfer them in practise, targeting specific systems: the reproductive tract and the urinary system.

New theorical and practical learnings of animal physiology III are built on previous fundamentals of chemistry, histology, anatomy as well as splanchnology. Mastering those basics in morphology and sciences is therefore essential to better understand the mechanisms described for the reproductive and urinary system during pedagogical activities of animal physiology III. You will be stimulated to integrate your learnings of the targeted systems in physiological and pathological context. By all the learning activities, the teaching team aims to help you to have an overview of the living animal, and to connect those learnings to basic sciences and to further clinical practice in vet master.

 

Goals

Pedagogical activities aim you to reach those objectives:

  • Describe and understand mechanisms associated to the reproduction of selected animal species and understand the practical consequences.
  • Describe and understand cycle in female and explain changes observed in the reproductive tract with cycle.
  • Know and cite the specificities of the female (cycle, gestation), and males (semen) in selected animal species.
  • Understand and describe mechanisms that lead to gestation, birth and milking.
  • Understand and describe adaptation mechanisms of the new-born (extra-uterine life adaptation).
  • Identify on various devices (images, videos, etc) the different steps of birth, the adaptation of newborn to extrauterine life, and mention the physiological timing for each step.
  • Describe and understand the urinary excretion.
  • Know and describe the non-urinary functions of the kidneys.
  • Identify and describe normal micturition.
  • Transfer/apply theorical knowledge to basic vet situations.
  • Perform part of clinical exam and tests to investigate the function of the abovementioned systems.
  • Interpret results of those exams, motivate answer and describe mechanisms of response (physiological and pathological).

 

Learning activities targeting the studied systems aim to link physiological concepts and the body systems (digestive, endocrine, cardio-vascular, respiratory). This is a nice introduction to your future courses in internal medicine and obstetric.

Content

This course adds new knowledge and competencies to the Animal Physiology I (cellular, cardio-vascular and respiratory) and II (digestive and endocrine), by introducing you to the physiology of the reproductive and urinary tract.

Lectures and activities aim to provide you with the specificities of the reproduction of the selected species, from puberty to reproduction, in male and female; and with the functions of the different part of the urinary system,

Activities should enable you to understand theorical concepts and to link them to practical activities (either in the university, or in your future curriculum in master). This link is important for your long-lasting learning of the animal physiology

 

Table of contents

Physiology of the reproductive tract

Puberty

Cyclicity and seasonality

Gestation

Parturition

Lactation

Adaptation to extra-uterine life

 

Physiology of the urinary tract

Glomerular filtration and primitive urine

Proximal convoluted tube

Henle and vasa recta

Distal convoluted tube and collector duct

Acid-base balance

Micturition and urine

Other functions of the kidneys

Exercices

Activities (called, in French, travaux dirigés et travaux pratiques) include learning practical handling of animals to specifically investigate urinary/reproductive systems and udder, working on clinical cases during seminars, stimulating reminiscence of learning and transferring them to professional situations, but also connecting learning of different systems.

Activities will also be the opportunity for you to exercise your soft skills, organization, communication, presentation (oral, written), as well as animal handling and clinical exam.

 

Assessment method

Assessment, at the end of the learning period, is done for all teaching activities and for all learning outcomes (knowledge, understanding, transfer, and practice).

Examination is done through oral and written exam. Written part will mainly be associated to description of mechanisms, transfer of knowledge to cases, schematisation of combined mechanisms or synthesis of the response to a physiological or pathological situation. Oral exam will mainly assess the ability to perform an act (part of the clinical exam), to perform and/or interpret results (with motivated answer), and to apply knowledge to clinical case. Success to both is mandatory for validation of the course.

 

Sources, references and any support material

Fundamental knowledge in chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, splanchnology, histology as well as biochemistry are required to understand and build the knowledge and practice of the Integrated physiology lecture.

Pedagogical contents are provided by the teaching team on the Webcampus platform. This may include (and not limited to): slides, videos, audio. This ensures you, as a vet student, have access to the main content of the course.

References for further reading may be provided by the teaching team. A list of reference textbook of physiology is provided as example, below:

Sjaastad, O. V., Sand, O., & Hove, K. (2010). Physiology of domestic animals. Scan. Vet. Press.

Klein, T. B. G. (2012). Cunningham's textbook of veterinary physiology-E-book. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Those books are available upon request at the library.

 

Language of instruction

Français
Training Study programme Block Credits Mandatory
Bachelier en médecine vétérinaire Standard 0 2
Bachelier en médecine vétérinaire Standard 3 2