Spring 2027

Diseases of Wildlife

Overview of wildlife diseases covering biological, epidemiological, and public health aspects within an ecosystem health or one health framework.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Kurt Sladky

The class was test-heavy, relying on three exams for the entire grade. One student noted that a lot of details were needed for the exams, making it easy to slip up without adequate study time.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Explain how an infection differs from disease.

  • Recognize different groups of infectious microorganisms: viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, prions, etc.

  • Define and describe ecosystem health or one health.

  • Define the terms zoonosis, zoonoses, and zoonotic.

  • Evaluate how anthropogenic influences exacerbate transmission of zoonotic diseases.

  • Describe and explain the epidemiological concepts related to each wildlife disease presented in this course.

  • Recognize diseases that are specific to animal groups or humans, or are nonspecific, having the potential to infect many different species.

Source: UW Guide 1 UW Guide 2

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

BOTANY/​BIOLOGY 130, (ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY 101 and 102),ZOOLOGY/​BIOLOGY/​BOTANY 151,BIOCORE 381, or graduate/professional standing

F&WECOL/SURGSCI 548

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

KURT SLADKY is recorded teaching in Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2013, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2017, Fall 2018, Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Kurt Sladky

The course featured guest lectures from industry professionals and DNR veterinarians, with Kurt Sladky organizing the content. Students found the material interesting and appreciated the posted slides and recordings.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2023: 2.99 GPA, 39.3% A/AB (n=56 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.28 GPA, 63.0% A/AB (n=54 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.29 GPA, 55.6% A/AB (n=63 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Kurt Sladky

The class was test-heavy, relying on three exams for the entire grade. One student noted that a lot of details were needed for the exams, making it easy to slip up without adequate study time.

Past student reviews · Kurt Sladky

Sladky posted summaries that covered the exam content, which students found extremely helpful for studying. He also published study guides to support student success.

Topics

  • Wildlife diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites, prions, and environmental contaminants
  • Ecosystem health and one health concepts
  • Environmental change effects on wildlife disease manifestation
  • Disease management across animal, human, ecological, and societal contexts

Skills

  • Recognize infectious microorganisms including viruses, bacteria, fungi, parasites, and prions
  • Apply epidemiological concepts to analyze wildlife disease transmission and management
  • Evaluate how environmental and anthropogenic changes influence zoonotic disease transmission
  • Understand multifaceted disease management spanning animal, human, ecological, and societal dimensions

Grades

Latest available · Fall 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Fall 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Fall 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1316 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "f14dcd9693fa57bde35be33972580830b54cd2aa98a3cc9951de0a5936e4a8d9",
  "requirements_status": "needs_review",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}