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Article: Zoonoses
- Article from:
- Encyclopedia of Public Health
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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ZOONOSES
Zoonoses, or zoonotic diseases, are caused by infectious agents that are transmissible under natural circumstances from vertebrate animals to humans. Zoonoses may arise from wild or domestic animals or from products of animal origin. Zoonoses have been known since early hystorical times. There are biblical references to plague, a bacterial zoonosis mainly transmitted to humans by fleas; and some historians contend that a disease first described by Thucydides during the Plague of Athens (430
–
425 b.c.e.) was typhus, a louse-borne zoonosis (Zinsser). Certain zoonoses, such as yellow fever, malaria, and rabies, are well known to the general public, but a vast number of ...