Causes of Disease

4-H Veterinary Science

Extension Veterinary Medicine 
Texas AgriLife Extension Service
College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science
Texas A&M System
http://aevm.tamu.edu
Objectives
 Distinguish between infectious and non-
infectious causes of disease
 Discuss risk factors
 Discuss primary cause factors
 Discuss secondary cause factors
Infectious Diseases
 Infectious disease
 An illness due to a specific infectious agent or
its toxic products that arises through
transmission of that agent or its products from
an infected person, animal or reservoir to a
susceptible host, either directly or indirectly
 Agents involved
 Germs
 Bacteria
 Viruses
 Fungi
 Rickettsiae
 Helminths
 Protozoa
 Arthropods
 Damage caused
 Feed off of body tissue
 Reproduce in tissue
 Release toxins
 Pressure
 Reproduction
 Lag phase
 Usually incubation period where organism is
settling in to new surrounding
 Growth phase
 Exponential growth is rapid Plateau
Phase
 Plateau phase Number of
 Growth = Death Organisms Growth
Phase

Lag Phase

Time
 Lag phase maybe long
 Non-disease dormancy or latency
 multiple when conditions are optimal or when
organism is ready
 May break if bacteria is in stressful
environment
 Bacteria and virus are precipitated by stress
 Ex. Anthrax go into dormancy (spore form) when
exposed to oxygen, once in anaerobic environment,
bacteria multiply and cause fatal disease
 Causes disease
Non-Infectious Disease
 Disease cause
 Dysfunction or disorder of reproductive
disease
 Example - hypo/hyper-thyroidism
 Nutritional deficiencies or imbalances
 Example - copper toxicity - damage liver
 Chemical and plant poisoning
 Example - acorns and green tomatoes
 Physical injuries and stress
 Causal pathway
 Variables present

B C C
B

A D
A D

H E
E
G F
F

Diseased Non-Diseased
Primary Cause
 ALWAYS present when occurs and
 Risk factors increase or decrease probability
of disease in individual
 Disease
 Example - not washing hands after using
restroom
 Dysfunction
 Example - cryptorchidism
 Disorder
 Example - type 1 diabetes - body does not
produce enough insulin
Secondary Causes
 Primary cause not as evident
 Secondary is noticeable when individual is
sick
 Need tissue damage from primary cause
 Invade and multiply

Dividing Bacteria Video

Risk Factors
 Causative factors
 Increase chances of getting sick
 Examples
 Overcrowding
 Pollution
 Weather
 Inbreeding
 Protective factors
 Decrease chances of getting sick
 Examples
 Vaccination
 Husbandry
 Crossbreeding
 Good management practices