Zoonoses are diseases that can spread from animals to man or indeed vice versa. They have been with us throughout human history but recently have begun to assume greater importance to humanity.
Often in the past these conditions have been localised and generally associated with intimate contact between animals and man but more recently some have acquired a more global distribution and threaten to instigate human pandemics.
This increased risk from zoonoses relates to a number of significant changes currently taking place over the world as a whole. The demand for example for increased supply of animal protein by the increasingly wealthy global population has led to both an increase in intensification in livestock production methods worldwide, coupled with the development of a truly global market for meat and milk. Animal products are shipped worldwide and any lapse of food biological security can mean distribution of the problem on a very large scale. Efforts at controlling foodborne pathogens in developed markets are likely to be undermined by importation of cheaper product from producers with potentially lower standards.
The other major, significant contributing influence is that of climate change which is allowing disease vectors such as insects and arachnids to extend their range, thus exposing naive populations of humans and animals to novel diseases.
Recently vector born...
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