Effectiveness of DMU e-Parasitology in teaching animal parasitology. Integrating knowledge in Analytical Chemistry.

Abstract

The devastating effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic 2019 (COVID-19) globally has highlighted the importance of the human/animal interface and the environment shared as a potential source of diseases. Emerging evidence has shown that significant zoonotic parasitic diseases could be appropriately controlled by implementing a One Health approach, with input from an interdisciplinary team including engineering professionals. De Montfort University (DMU, UK) is leading the development of virtual resources for the teaching and learning of animal parasitology, which will be available in the e-Parasitology® website (http:// parasitology.dmu.ac.uk/index.htm). We have carried out a teaching intervention to introduce this novel resource in the Agricultural Engineering degree at University of Salamanca (Spain) in 2020/21. 76.7% of students (n=30) indicated that engaging with the different formative quizzes and exercises available in e-Parasitology® helped them with understanding the parasitology content of their Animal Health third year module. Our intervention also shown that the website could be used to tackle the downward trend in the teaching of veterinary parasitology, by facilitating the teaching of important zoonoses in programmes with very little time available for the appropriate study of these diseases.