zoonosis
Sign in to saveA zoonosis (; : zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi or prion) which can jump from a non-human animal to a human. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis.
AI overview
A zoonosis is an infectious disease that spreads from animals to humans, caused by pathogens like viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, or prions. Understanding zoonotic diseases matters because they represent a significant pathway through which new infections can emerge and affect human health.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Article
30 sectionsContents
- Epidemiology
- Causes
- Urban wildlife and disease transmission
- Contamination of food or water supply
- Bacterial pathogens
- Viral pathogens
- Parasitic pathogens
- Farming, ranching and animal husbandry
- Wildlife trade or animal attacks
- Insect vectors
- Pets
- Exhibition
- Hunting and bushmeat
- Deforestation, biodiversity loss and environmental degradation
- Climate change
- Mechanisms linking climate change and zoonotic diseases
- Changes in vector distribution
- Wildlife migration and spillover risk
- One Health approach and prevention strategies
- Secondary transmission
- Environmental drivers of zoonotic disease emergence
- One Health approach
- Prevention and surveillance
- History
- Use in vaccines
- Lists of diseases
- See also
- References
- Bibliography
- External links
A zoonosis (; : zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a virus, bacterium, parasite, fungi or prion) which can jump from a non-human animal to a human. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis.
Major modern diseases such as Ebola and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease. Human infection with animal influenza viruses is rare, as they do not transmit easily to or among humans. However, avian and swine influenza viruses in particular possess high zoonotic potential, and these occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 2009 swine flu. Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as emergent viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic. Most human diseases originated in non-humans; however, only diseases that routinely involve non-human to human transmission, such as rabies, are considered direct zoonoses.