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Unit of Study VMED3005 - Population Medicine, VPH and One Health (2026)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    1. To pass the unit, students must submit all assessment tasks. 2. Attendance: It is important to recognise the relationship between attendance, participation, student success and retention. Please take advantage of all classes and engagement activities as it will increase your opportunity for learning, progression in the course, and success as a veterinarian. For units with practicals and other learning activities that directly relate to developing AVBC day one competencies that are required for veterinary accreditation, attendance is required. These will be identified within each unit and attendance requirements clearly communicated to students.

Unit description

This unit serves to expand students’ knowledge and skills in clinical methods to the population scale. Students will develop the ability to evaluate and manage the health of animal populations, including conducting examinations, collecting and analysing population-level data, and implementing effective strategies for disease treatment and control and prevention. Students will apply essential epidemiological techniques to problem-solving complex disease presentations at the population level. Foundational population health principles will be then extended to the One Health context. Students will develop an appreciation of the interrelatedness of veterinary medicine with human health, and environmental health. By applying this knowledge, students will be able to promote One Health principles in their professional practice, fostering a collaborative and holistic approach to addressing complex health challenges and promoting sustainability. Population health principles will then be applied to promoting students’ competencies in food protection. Students will develop a foundational knowledge of food science and microbiology in order to work towards assuring the safety and quality of animal-derived foods. They will develop core professional competencies in ante-mortem, slaughter, and post-mortem inspection procedures in food-producing animals. Instruction in food safety and quality assurance processes and certification will allow students to describe how food is produced to international standards and promotes trade in animal products. 

Unit content

  1. Population health intro and evaluation
  2. Applied epidemiology
  3. One health
  4. Zoonoses
  5. Diagnosis and Therapy
  6. Food security and inspection

Availabilities

Not currently available in 2026

Learning outcomes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

apply knowledge and skills in population-level clinical examination and epidemiological and production data to evaluating and managing the health of animals

adapt principles of One Health practice to create integrated approaches to protecting animal health, public health, and environmental sustainability

synthesise knowledge of food quality and safety assurance with skills in animals and animal-derived food inspection to protect the food chain and facilitate trade in animal products

reflect on population medicine principles and techniques to formulate and communicate preventive and control strategies that can be applied for the benefits of animal, public, and environmental health.