Infectious diseases from animals (zoonosis)

Many people all around the world like to have a pet (or pets) at home. There are cats, dogs, lizards, fish and even pigs as pets in different countries and areas in the world. But do you know that you can get a lot of diseases from these pets? Yes, it is true! The diseases common for pets/animals and human are the so called “zoonosis”. A zoonosis or “zoonose” is any infectious disease that can be transmitted (in some instances, by a vector) from animals (wild and domestic, including pets), to humans or from humans to non-human animals (the latter is sometimes called “reverse zoonosis” or “anthroponosis”). An inportant fact to know is that: 1415 pathogens known to affect humans, 61% are zoonotic!

According to the infectious agent, zoonoses can be: parasites, protozoa, helminths (nematodes, cestodes and trematodes), fungi, bacteria, viruses and pria. So many people all around the world have no idea how many disease (some of these diseases are pretty scary) are there. But if you read this article you’re lucky, because now you’ll see a partial list of these diseases (zoonosis):

 

Anthrax

Babesiosis

Balantidiasis

Barmah Forest virus

Bartonellosis

Bilharzia

Bolivian hemorrhagic fever

Brucellosis

Borrelia (Lyme disease and others)

Borna virus infection

Bovine tuberculosis

Campylobacteriosis

Cat Scratch Disease

Chagas disease

Chlamydophila psittaci

Cholera

Cowpox

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) from bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or “mad cow disease”

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever

Cryptosporidiosis

Cutaneous larva migrans

Dengue fever

Ebola

Echinococcosis

Escherichia coli O157:H7

Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae

Eastern equine encephalitis virus

Western equine encephalitis virus

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus

Giardia lamblia

H1N1 flu

Hantavirus

Helminths

Hendra virus

Henipavirus

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Korean hemorrhagic fever

Kyasanur forest disease

L¨¢brea fever

Lassa fever

Leishmaniasis

Leptospirosis

Listeriosis

Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus

Marburg fever

Mediterranean spotted fever

Mycobacterium marinum

Monkey B

Nipah fever

Ocular larva migrans

Omsk hemorrhagic fever

Ornithosis (psittacosis)

Orf (animal disease)

Oropouche fever

Pasteurellosis

Plague

Puumala virus

Q-Fever

Psittacosis, or “parrot fever”

Rabies

Rift Valley fever

Ringworms (Tinea canis)

Rotavirus

Salmonellosis

Sodoku

Sparganosis

Streptococcus suis

Toxocariasis

Toxoplasmosis

Trichinosis

Tularemia, or “rabbit fever”

Typhus of Rickettsiae

Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever

Visceral larva migrans

West Nile virus

Yellow fever

Yersiniosis

 

Other zoonoses might be:

Glanders

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

 

Now, I hope, for everyone is pretty clear that to keep a pet at home is a risky choice. Before take a decision to have some pets, please think twice!

Be healthy!