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ZOONOSES

Zoonotic diseases:

When animals share with humans

By Fred H. Olin, DVM, MD

Zoonoses, or zoonotic diseases, are those conditions which are endemic in other animals but which can be
transmitted to humans. The word comes from the Greek roots for “animal” and “disease.” There is a related
word, “anthroponoses,” which was new to me until I began researching this article. It refers both to diseases
transmitted among humans, and those transmitted from humans to animals. For this article, I will use “zoonosis”
and “zoonoses” for both situations when nonhuman creatures are involved.

Zoonoses can be, and are, caused by all of the usual suspects found in the infectious disease pantheon: viruses,
bacteria of all sorts, fungi, protozoa, spirochetes, and rickettsia, as well as multicellular organisms such as
helminthes and tapeworms. Here is a list of just some of the conditions known to be zoonotic:

Anthrax H1N1 influenza virus Q-Fever
Avian influenza (bird flu) Western equine encephalitis virus Rabies
Babesiosis Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus Rift Valley fever
Bartonellosis Giardia lamblia Ringworms
Bilharzia Hantavirus Salmonellosis
Brucellosis (Relapsing fever) Lassa fever Streptococcus suis
Borrelia (Lyme disease and others) Leishmaniasis Swine influenza
Bovine tuberculosis Leptospirosis Toxocariasis
Campylobacteriosis Listeriosis Toxoplasmosis
Chlamydophila psittaci Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus Trichinosis
Cholera Marburg fever Tularemia, or “rabbit fever”
Cowpox Mediterranean spotted fever Typhus
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease Monkey B Venezuelan hemorrhagic fever
Cryptosporidiosis Ocular larva migrans Visceral larva migrans
Cutaneous larva migrans Ornithosis (psittacosis, parrot fever) West Nile virus
Dengue fever Orf (animal disease) Yellow fever
Echinococcosis Plague
Escherichia coli O157:H7 Puumala virus

14 San Antonio Medicine • July 2015