Hi guys! First off here is a link to my Wikipedia entry on Trypanosomosis or commonly known as Surra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surra . I chose this topic because I wanted to look at an infectious disease. Above is a picture of a horse affected by Surra and displaying many of the physical symptoms of the infection. In Animal Science I have been learning about many infectious diseases, but wanted to choose one that is not very "sexy' and well known. Although Trypaonosomosis is not a very big concern in North America, it is a serious problem in developing nations. I hope by reading my Wikipedia article additions, people can become more aware of this disease and can better understand it. We need better methods of detection. I know professors who are doing research on early disease detection where they are trying to detect illness up to a week before any clinical symptoms appear based solely by looking at behavior. Since many times by the time symptoms appear it can already be too late, this I feel is very important to me.
It was quite interesting and to be honest, a bit frustrating, trying to update my wiki article and learning the codes. At the end of the day however, I feel it was important for us to do this exercise because Wikipedia has helped everybody at some point or another in their life. I have used it to just randomly search up info that has interested me, used it for essays, and as a resource to complete countless assignments. It was only fair that we give back by contributing to unfinished stubs. I know that I am nowhere near a top wiki entry status, but I still hope people can better learn and understand Surra disease by looking at my article. The idea that anybody is allowed to add their input is both wonderful, but can also lead to false information being posted. However, one can always use the references at the bottom of Wikipedia articles to determine if what they are reading is something they can trust. Wikipedia should not be a main tool for research projects, but it can be a great tool for a quick answer to that question which has been driving you crazy!!
I wanted to add a link to Andrea Roman's blog she added to an interesting article on Trisomy 22. I have taken some genetics classes before and so I did find it quite interesting.
http://andrearoman01.blogspot.com/2011/11/wiki-entry.html?showComment=1321035223968#c4138029140080619994
