Poisonous and Venomous Animals, Animal Poisonings

Data

Official data in SubjectManager for the following academic year: 2024-2025

Topic

Worldwidely more and more people keep those animals (with or without permission) which are capable to cause severe poisonings. Nevertheless more and more people traveling abroad which means high risk to get animal-related toxicity. The course tries to familiarize the students with the theoretical and practical background of poisoning caused by the most important animal groups, including the venom characteristics, pathophysiology and basic medical care actions.

Lectures

• 1. Introduction and basic concepts of toxicology - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 2. Introduction and basic concepts of toxinology - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 3. Sponge related envenomations - Morphology, toxins, pathogenesis and prevention - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 4. Cnidarian envenomations, case-reports (Portuguese Man-O-War and Box jellyfish) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 5. Molluscs I - Cephalopodes, case reports (Common blue-ringed octopus related poisonings) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 6. Molluscs II - Shellfish poisonings (paralytic, neurotoxic, amnesic and diarrhetic) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 7. Molluscs III - Snails, case reports (Cone shell envenomations) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 8. Molluscs III - Morphology, toxin subfamilies, epidemiology and pathogenesis - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 9. Annelids - burning bristles and glycerotoxin (Bristle worms) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 10. Arthropods I - Crustaceans (saxitoxin and tetrodotoxin, case reports) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 11. Arthropods II - Scorpions (anatomy, toxinology, pathogenesis and prevention) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 12. Arthropods III - Spiders (necrosis by loxoscelism and prevention) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 13. Arthropods IV - Ticks (Dermacentor andersoni and Ixodes holocylus) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 14. Arthropods V - Insects (blister beetles, bees, wasps, ants, butterflies, caterpillars) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 15. Arthropods VI - Chilopoda (centipedes, scolopenders) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 16. Echinoderms - Anatomy of pedicellareae, therapy and prevention (Sea urchins) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 17. Chordata I - Cartilaginous and bony fishes (active poisonings by rays, sharks and catfishes) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 18. Chordata II - Bony fishes (passive tetrodotoxin by Fugu, ciguatoxin and scrombotoxin poisonings, case reports) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 19. Chordata III - Amphibians (Poison dart frog, toads and salamanders) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 20. Chordata IV - Reptile and lizard envenomations (Heloderma sp. and case reports) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 21. Chordata V - Snake envenomations I (anatomical differences in aglyphous, opisthoglyphous, proteroglyphous, solenoglyphous dentition and toxins) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 22. Chordata V - Snake envenomations II (european, african, middle east, asian, australian, north and south american species and case reports) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 23. Chordata VI - Birds and mammals (Hooded pithoui, bats and platypus, case reports) - Bérczi Bálint Dániel
• 24. The general medical care of animal poisonings and the therapeutical options of snake envenomations - Bérczi Bálint Dániel

Practices

Seminars

Reading material

Obligatory literature

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Literature developed by the Department

Lectures will be uploaded to Neptun.

Notes

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Recommended literature

Steve Backshall: Venomous Animals of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007

Dietrich Mebs: Venomous and Poisonous Animals: A Handbook for Biologists, Toxicologists and Toxinologists, Physicians and Pharmacists, Medpharm; 2002

Conditions for acceptance of the semester

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Mid-term exams

Written exam (simple choice) has to be done on the last occasion.

Making up for missed classes

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Exam topics/questions

Neptun

Examiners

Instructor / tutor of practices and seminars