Zoonosis (pronounced /zoʊəˈnoʊsɪs/) is any infectious disease that may be transmitted from other animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to animals (the latter is sometimes called reverse zoonosis). This false-colored electron micrograph shows a malaria sporozoite migrating through the midgut epithelia. ... Animalia redirects here. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) in the family Hominidae (the great apes). ...

The word is derived from the Greek words zoon (animal) (IPA: zo'on) and nosos (disease). Many serious diseases fall under this category.

The plural of zoonosis is zoonoses, from which an alternative singular zoonose is derived by back-formation. In etymology, the process of back-formation is the creation of a neologism by reinterpreting an earlier word as a compound and removing the spuriously supposed affixes. ...

The simplest definition of a zoonosis is a disease that can be transmitted from other animals to humans. A slightly more technical definition is a disease that normally exists in other animals, but also infects humans. The term disease refers to an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs function. ...

The emerging interdisciplinary field of conservation medicine, which integrates human and veterinary medicine, and environmental sciences, is largely concerned with zoonoses. Conservation medicine is an emerging, interdisciplinary field that studies the relationship between human and animal health, and environmental conditions. ... Veterinary medicine is the application of medical, diagnostic, and therapeutic principles to companion, domestic, exotic, wildlife, and production animals. ... Environmental science is the study of the interactions among the physical, chemical and biological components of the environment; with a focus on pollution and degradation of the environment related to human activities; and the impact on biodiversity and sustainability from local and global development. ...

Partial list of carriers

A partial list of agents that can carry infectious organisms that may be zoonotic includes:

• Bats
• Cats
• Cattle
• Chimpanzees
• Dogs
• Geese
• Goats
• Horses
• Humans
• Monkeys
• Opossums
• Pigs
• Rabbits and hares
• Raccoons
• Rodents
• Snails
• Sloths
• Fish
• sheeps

“Chiroptera” redirects here. ... Binomial name Felis catus Linnaeus, 1758 Synonyms Felis lybica invalid junior synonym The cat (or domestic cat, house cat) is a small carnivorous mammal. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Type species Simia troglodytes Blumenbach, 1775 distribution of Species Pan troglodytes Pan paniscus Chimpanzee, often shortened to chimp, is the common name for the two extant species in the genus Pan. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ... Other uses: Goose (disambiguation) Genera Anser Branta Chen Cereopsis † see also: Swan, Duck Anatidae Goose (plural geese) is the general English name for a considerable number of birds, belonging to the family Anatidae. ... Species See Species and subspecies The goat is a mammal in the genus Capra, which consists of nine species: the Ibex, the West Caucasian Tur, the East Caucasian Tur, the Markhor, and the Wild Goat. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The horse (Equus caballus, sometimes seen as a subspecies of the Wild Horse, Equus ferus caballus) is a large odd-toed ungulate mammal, one of ten modern species of the genus Equus. ... Trinomial name Homo sapiens sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Humans, or human beings, are bipedal primates belonging to the mammalian species Homo sapiens (Latin: wise man or knowing man) in the family Hominidae (the great apes). ... Approximate worldwide distribution of monkeys. ... This article or section should be merged with Virginia_opossum The word opossum (usually pronounced without the leading O, or with only a very slight schwa) refers either to the Virginia Opossum in particular, or more generally to any of the other marsupials of magnorder Ameridelphia. ... This article is about the pig genus. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world. ... Jack rabbit and Jackrabbit redirect here. ... Type species Procyon lotor Linnaeus, 1758 Species Procyon cancrivorus Procyon insularis Procyon lotor Skull of a raccoon, showing dentition. ... Suborders Sciuromorpha Castorimorpha Myomorpha Anomaluromorpha Hystricomorpha Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents. ... The name snail applies to most members of the molluscan class Gastropoda that have coiled shells. ... Families Megalonychidae Bradypodidae Sloths are medium-sized mammals that live in Central and South America belonging to the families Megalonychidae and Bradypodidae, part of the order Pilosa. ... A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ... Species See text. ...

List of infective agents

Zoonoses can be listed according to the infective agent:

• Parasites which includes protozoa, helminths, cestodes and trematodes
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Fungi
• Prions

A parasite is an organism that lives in or on the living tissue of a host organism at the expense of it. ... Wikisource has an original article from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica about: Protozoa Protozoa (in Greek proto = first and zoa = animals) are single-celled eukaryotes (organisms whose cells have nuclei) that commonly show characteristics usually associated with animals, most notably mobility and heterotrophy. ... A worm is an elongated soft-bodied invertebrate animal. ... Orders Subclass Cestodaria Amphilinidea Gyrocotylidea Subclass Eucestoda Aporidea Caryophyllidea Cyclophyllidea Diphyllidea Lecanicephalidea Litobothridea Nippotaeniidea Proteocephalidea Pseudophyllidea Spathebothriidea Tetraphyllidea Trypanorhyncha In biology, Cestoda is the class of parasitic flatworms, called cestodes or tapeworms, that live in the digestive tract of vertebrates as adults and often in the bodies of various animals... Subclasses Aspidogastrea Digenea The Trematoda is a class within the phylum Platyhelminthes, which contains two groups of parasitic worms. ... Phyla/Divisions Actinobacteria Aquificae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chlamydiae/Verrucomicrobia Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Nitrospirae Omnibacteria Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Bacteria (singular, bacterium) are a major group of living organisms. ... A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ... Divisions Chytridiomycota Zygomycota Ascomycota Basidiomycota The Fungi (singular: fungus) are a large group of organisms ranked as a kingdom within the Domain Eukaryota. ... For the bird called a prion, see Prion (bird) Prions - short for proteinaceous infectious particle - are infectious self-reproducing protein structures. ...

Partial list of important zoonoses

Some of the more important zoonoses are:

• Anthrax
• Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
• Bolivian hemorrhagic fever
• Brucellosis
• Borrelia
• Borna virus infection
• Bubonic plague
• Campylobacteriosis
• Chagas disease
• Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) a Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) from Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or "Mad cow disease"
• Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
• Cutaneous larval migrans
• Dengue Fever
• Ebola fever
• Echinococcosis
• Korean hemorrhagic fever
• Lábrea fever
• Lassa fever
• Leishmaniasis
• Leptospirosis
• Listeriosis
• Marburg virus infection
• Monkey B virus
• Nipah virus
• Ocular larval migrans
• Ornithosis (psitacosis)
• Oropouche fever
• Q-Fever
• Plague
• Rabies
• Rift Valley fever
• Ringworms (Tinea canis, mainly)
• Salmonellosis
• Sodoku
• Toxoplasmosis
• Trichinosis
• Typhus and other Rickettsial diseases
• Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever
• Visceral larval migrans
• Yellow fever

Other zoonoses might be Genera Influenzavirus A Influenzavirus B Influenzavirus C Isavirus Thogotovirus Influenzavirus A is a genus of a family of viruses called Orthomyxoviridae in virus classification. ... Species Machupo virus Bolivian hemorrhagic fever (BHF), also known as black typhus or Machupo virus, is a hemorrhagic fever and zoonotic infectious disease occurring in Bolivia. ... Species Borrelia anserina Borrelia burgdorferi Borrelia is a genus of bacteria of the spirochete class. ... The Borna disease virus is the causative agent of borna disease in horses and other animals. ... Bubonic plague is the best-known variant of the deadly infectious disease, plague, which is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. ... Campylobacteriosis is among the most common bacterial infections of humans. ... Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is a very rare and incurable degenerative neurological disorder (brain disease) that is ultimately fatal. ... Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs, also known as prion diseases) are a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of humans and animals and are transmitted by prions. ... Classic image of cattle with BSE. Frantic digging going nowhere. ... Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a widespread tick-borne viral disease, a zoonosis of domestic animals and wild animals, that may affect humans. ... Dengue fever (IPA: ) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics, with a geographical spread similar to malaria. ... Ebola is both the common term used to describe a group of viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae, and the common name for the disease which they cause, Ebola hemorrhagic fever. ... Species Andes virus (ANDV) Bayou virus (BAYV) Black Creek Canal virus (BCCV) Cano Delgadito virus (CADV) Dobrava-Belgrade virus (DOBV) El Moro Canyon virus (ELMCV) Hantaan virus (HTNV) Isla Vista virus (ISLAV) Khabarovsk virus (KHAV) Laguna Negra virus (LANV) Muleshoe virus (MULV) New York virus (NYV) Prospect Hill virus (PHV... Lábrea fever, also known as Lábreas black fever and Lábrea hepatitis, is a lethal tropical viral infection discovered in the 1950s in the city of Lábrea, in the Brazilian Amazon basin, where it occurs mostly in the area south of the Amazon River, in the... Lassa fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic fever first described in 1969 in the Nigerian town of Lassa in the Yedseram River valley. ... The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg hemorrhagic fever. ... Monkey B Virus (Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 (B virus)) is a rare but highly leathal demyelinating virus that has been documented killing humans when spread from simians. ... Species Hendravirus Nipahvirus Henipavirus is a genus of the family Paramyxoviridae, order Mononegavirales containing two members, Hendra virus (originally Equine morbillivirus, EBV) and Nipah virus. ... In medicine (pulmonology), psittacosis -- also known as parrot disease, parrot fever, and ornithosis -- is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Mycoplasma psittaci and contracted from parrots, macaws, cockatiels, and parakeets. ... Oropouche fever is a tropical viral infection, a zoonosis similar to dengue fever, transmitted by biting midge (species Culicoides paraensis) and mosquitoes from the blood of sloths to humans. ... The infectious organism is commonly found in cattle, sheep, goats and other domestic mammals, including cats and dogs. ... Look up plague in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Rift Valley Fever (RVF) is a viral zoonosis (affects primarily domestic livestock, but can be passed to humans) causing fever. ... Ringworm, also known as Tinea, is a contagious fungal infection of the skin. ... Salmonellosis is an infection with Salmonella bacteria. ... A Sudoku puzzle (image hyperlinked to solution) Sudoku (Japanese: 数独, sūdoku), sometimes spelled Su Doku, is a placement puzzle, also known as Number Place in the United States. ... Trichinosis, also called trichinellosis, or trichiniasis, is a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork and wild game products infected with the larvae of a species of roundworm Trichinella spiralis, commonly called the trichina worm. ... This is about the disease Typhus. ... Species Rickettsia felis Rickettsia prowazekii Rickettsia rickettsii Rickettsia typhi Bacteria of the genus Rickettsia are carried as parasites by many ticks, fleas, and lice, and cause diseases such as typhus, rickettsialpox, Brill-Zinsser disease, Boutonneuse fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and endemic typhus in human beings. ... Species Guanarito virus Venezualan hemorrhagic fever (VHF) is a zoonotic human illness, first identified in 1989, causing fever and malaise followed by hemorrhagic manifestations and convulsions. ... Visceral larva migrans is a condition in children caused by the migratory larvae of nematodes like Toxocara vitulloram ,T.canis etc. ...

• Glanders
• SARS (possibly; civet cats may spread the disease, or may catch the disease from humans.)

This list is by no means complete. The influenza virus is an interesting example: it continually recombines genes between strains found in humans, swine and avians, producing new strains with changed characteristics, and occasionally, as in 1918, killing millions worldwide. Glanders is an infectious disease that occurs primarily in horses, mules, and donkeys. ... Sars may refer to any of the following: Severe acute respiratory syndrome, commonly abbreviated as SARS Michael Sars, a Norwegian biologist, father of Georg Sars Georg Sars, a Norwegian biologist, son of Michael Sars Special Administrative Regions, commonly abbreviated as SARs Sars, Perm Krai, an urban settlement in Perm Krai... Genera Chrotogale Cynogale Diplogale Hemigalus Arctogalidia Macrogalidia Paguma larvata Paradoxurus Civettictis Viverra Viverricula With one exception, civets are some of the members of the family Viverridae. ... Influenza, commonly known as flu, is an infectious disease of birds and mammals caused by an RNA virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses). ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Image:Spanish flu notice. ...

Historical development of zoonotic diseases

Most of human prehistory was spent as small bands of hunter-gatherers; these bands were rarely larger than 150 individuals, and were not in contact with other bands very often. Because of this, epidemic or pandemic diseases, which depend on a constant influx of humans who have not developed an immune response, tended to burn out after their first run through a population. To survive, a biological pathogen had to be a chronic infection, stay alive in the host for long periods of time, or have a non-human reservoir in which to live while waiting for new hosts to pass by. In fact, for many 'human' diseases, the human is actually an accidental victim and a dead-end host. (This is the case with rabies, anthrax, tularemia, West Nile virus, and many others). Thus much of human development has been in relation to zoonotic, not epidemic, diseases. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Prehistoric man. ... In anthropology, the hunter-gatherer way of life is that led by certain societies of the Neolithic Era based on the exploitation of wild plants and animals. ... Dunbars number is a value significant in sociology and anthropology. ... In epidemiology, an epidemic (from [[Latin language] epi- upon + demos people) is a disease that appears as new cases in a given human population, during a given period, at a rate that substantially exceeds what is expected, based on recent experience (the number of new cases in the population during... A pandemic (from Greek παν pan all + δήμος demos people) is an epidemic (an outbreak of an infectious disease) that spreads across a large region (example a continent), or even worldwide. ... A request has been made on Wikipedia for this article to be deleted in accordance with the deletion policy. ... In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease which has developed slowly or gradually. ... It has been suggested that Intermediate host be merged into this article or section. ... Tularemia (also known as rabbit fever) is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. ... West Nile virus (WNV) is a virus of the family Flaviviridae; part of the Japanese encephalitis (JE) antigenic complex of viruses, it is found in both tropical and temperate regions. ...

Many modern diseases, even epidemic diseases, started out as zoonotic diseases. It is hard to be certain which diseases jumped from other animals to humans, but there is good evidence that measles, smallpox, influenza, and diphtheria came to us this way. HIV, the common cold, and tuberculosis may also have started in other species. Smallpox (also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera) is a highly contagious disease unique to humans. ... Influenza, commonly known as flu, is an infectious disease of birds and mammals caused by an RNA virus of the family Orthomyxoviridae (the influenza viruses). ... Species Human immunodeficiency virus 1 Human immunodeficiency virus 2 Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS, a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections). ... // Acute viral nasopharyngitis, often known as the common cold, is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory system (nose and throat). ... Tuberculosis (abbreviated as TB for Tubercle Bacillus) is a common and deadly infectious disease that is caused by mycobacteria, primarily Mycobacterium tuberculosis. ...

In modern days, zoonoses are of practical interest because they are often previously unrecognized diseases or have increased virulence in populations lacking immunity. The West Nile virus appeared in the United States in 1999 in the New York City area, and moved through the country in the summer of 2002, causing much distress. Bubonic plague is a zoonotic disease, as are salmonella, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme disease. New York, NY redirects here. ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Bubonic plague is the best-known variant of the deadly infectious disease, plague, which is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis. ... Species Salmonella bongori Salmonella enterica Salmonella arizonae Salmonella enteritidis Salmonella typhi Salmonella typhimurium Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped Gram-negative enterobacteria that causes typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and foodborne illness. ... Binomial name Rickettsia rickettsii Wolbach, 1919 Wikispecies has information related to: Ixodidae Wikispecies has information related to: Rickettsia Rocky Mountain spotted fever is the most severe and most frequently reported rickettsial illness in the United States, and has been diagnosed throughout the Americas. ... Lyme disease (Borreliosis) is a bacterial infection with a spirochete from the species complex Borrelia burgdorferi, which is most often acquired from the bite of an infected Ixodes, or black-legged, tick, also known as a deer tick. ...

The major factor contributing to the appearance of new zoonotic pathogens in human populations is increased contact between humans and wildlife (Daszak et al., 2001). This can be caused either by encroachment of human activity into wilderness areas or by movement of wild animals into areas of human activity due to anthropologic or environmental disturbances. An example of this is the outbreak of Nipah virus in peninsular Malaysia in 1999, when intensive pig farming intruded into the natural habitat of fruit bats carrying the virus. Unidentified spillover events caused infection of the pig population which acted as an amplifier host, eventually transmitting the virus to farmers and resulting in 105 human deaths (Field et al., 2001). Species Hendravirus Nipahvirus Henipavirus is a genus of the family Paramyxoviridae, order Mononegavirales containing two members, Hendravirus and Nipahvirus. ...

Similarly, in recent times avian influenza and West Nile virus have spilled over into human populations probably due to interactions between the carrier host and domestic animals. Highly mobile animals such as bats and birds may present a greater risk of zoonotic transmission than other animals due to the ease with which they can move into areas of human habitation.

Diseases like malaria, schistosomiasis, river blindness, and elephantiasis are not zoonotic, even though they may be transmitted by insects or use intermediate hosts vectors, because they depend on the human host for part of their life-cycle. Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease that is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa. ... Schistosomiasis or bilharzia is a disease affecting many people in developing countries. ... Onchocerciasis or river blindness is the worlds second leading infectious cause of blindness. ... Elephantiasis (Greek ελεφαντίασις, from ελέφαντας, the elephant) is a disease that is characterized by the thickening of the skin and underlying tissues, especially in the legs and genitals. ... Traditionally in medicine, a vector is an organism that does not cause disease itself but which spreads infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another, a vector is where the infectious organism does not change its DNA/RNA, for the reason a mosquito will not serve as vectors for...

References

• Field, H., Young, P., Yob, J. M., Mills, J., Hall, L., Mackenzie, J. (2001). The natural history of Hendra and Nipah viruses. Microbes and Infection 3, 307–314.

• Daszak, P., Cunningham, A.A., Hyatt, A.D. (2001). Anthropogenic environmental change and the emergence of infectious diseases in wildlife. Acta Trop. 78(2), 103–116.

• H. Krauss, A. Weber, M. Appel, B. Enders, A. v. Graevenitz, H. D. Isenberg, H. G. Schiefer, W. Slenczka, H. Zahner: Zoonoses. Infectious Diseases Transmissible from Animals to Humans. 3rd Edition, 456 pages. ASM Press. American Society for Microbiology, Washington DC., USA. 2003. ISBN 1-55581-236-8

See also

• Zoonoses in the context of sexual acts with animals are covered in more depth under Zoophilia and health.

Scanning electron microscope of a number of Leptospira sp. ...

External links

• Murphy, F.A. Emerging Zoonoses. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 4(3), 1998.

• Zoonoses Research in New Zealand [1]

• http://www.medical-microbiology.de/Dateien/zoo_eng.html

• National Centre for Zoonosis Research (UK) http://www.zoonosis.ac.uk

• North West Zoonoses Group (UK) http://www.northwest-zoonoses.info/

• Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research http://www.aciar.gov.au/web.nsf/doc/ACIA-6EWMY6