World Zoonoses Day

World Zoonoses Day is observed on July 6 every year to emphasize and bring the problem awareness amongst people, and teach them to take right action.

Approximately 150 zoonotic diseases are known to exist. Wildlife serves as a reservoir for many diseases common to domestic animals and humans. Persons working with wildlife should be alert to the potential for disease transmission from animals. Neither animal handlers nor the general public have reason to be alarmed or frightened but everyone should respect the potential for disease transmission and use sound preventive measures. Generally, disease can be easily prevented than treated. Nowadays, there is effective prevention through advance measures in medical science and vaccination.

Zoonosis

Zoonosis is derived from the Greek words zoon 'animal' and ????? nosos 'ailment'.

Zoonosis (also spelled zoönosis and zoonoses) describes the process whereby an infectious disease is transmitted between species (sometimes by a vector) from animals other than humans to humans or from humans to other animals (the latter is sometimes called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis). In direct zoonosis the agent needs only one host for completion of its life cycle, without a significant change during transmission.

In a systematic review of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic.The emergence of a pathogen into a new host species is called disease invasion or 'disease emergence'.

The emerging interdisciplinary field of conservation medicine, which integrates human and veterinary medicine, and environmental sciences, is largely concerned with zoonoses.

Most human prehistory was spent as groups of hunter-gatherers usually with fewer than 150 individuals that were not often in contact with other bands. 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, 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.

The major factor contributing to the appearance of new zoonotic pathogens in human populations is increased contact between humans and wildlife. This can be caused either by encroachment of human activity into wilderness areas or by movement of wild animals into areas of human activity. 

People can get zoonotic diseases from contact with infected live poultry, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and other domestic and wild animals. A common way for these diseases to spread is through the bite of a mosquito or tick. People can get diseases in most places where they might have contact with infected animals and insects, including:

Animal displays

Petting zoos,Pet stores,Nature parks,Wooded and bushy areas

Farms County or state fairs,Child–care facilities or schools

The most common zoonotic diseases:

Plague,Tuberculosis,Cat Scratch Fever,Tick Paralysis,
 HantavirusRingworm,Salmonellosis,
Leptospirosis,Lyme disease

Campylobacter infection,Giardia infection

Cryptosporidium infection,Roundworms,Hookworms

Scabies,Harvest mites,Rabies