Zoonoses and Man; Where can we find zoonotic diseases?

Human beings have always lived in close proximity with animals for centuries. Animals have been used as beasts of burdens on farms and households as well as a source of meat and animal products such as milk, eggs, meat and leather. Animal excreta has been used as a source of manure and biogas.

In as much as animals have always provided for man, they have also been a source of some of mans’ worst diseases some of which are curable and others incurable.

The diseases that are carried by animals and are passed on to humans are called zoonosis(es). Some of the modern diseases that started as zoonoses include:

·         Measles

·         Smallpox

·         Influenza

·         HIV

·         Diptheria

In my previous entry, I outlined zoonotic diseases by their causative agents and you will notice that the 5 diseases I have mentioned above including SARS, rabies, echirococcosis, taeniasis, brucellosis and trematodisis, are the major diseases that are of focus as public health threats.  But there are many more zoonotic diseases the world is not paying attention to and yet they are causing death  and becoming a public health issue. As such most zoonotic diseases are also known as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

Where are these zoonotic diseases found?

From the name neglected tropical diseases one could have a clue that these diseases mostly occur in the tropics. They are commonly found in Latin America, South East Asia and part of the Congo basin.

Below is the list of countries where NTDs are a major problem;

Americas and Latin America	South East Asia	Africa
Mexico	India	Cameroon
Colombia	Vietnam	Tanzania
Ecuador	Laos	Congo- DRC
Peru	Bangladesh	Uganda
Bolivia	Cambodia
Peru	Thailand
Brazil	Malaysia
Venenzuela
USA

Outbreaks of zoonotic diseases have occurred in different parts of the world but the countries mentioned above have experienced some of the major outbreaks or have frequent outbreaks of zoonoses.

It is interesting to note that the countries that are mentioned in the table above have something in common, close proximity to rainforests. Is there any association between zoonoses and proximity to rainforests? From the map (

www.healthmap.org/predict/) I noticed that most of the zoonotic oubreaks occured in countries where there is a rainforest. In Africa, the Congo basin host the second largest rainforest in the world, the Congo rainforest, which encompasses, Cameroon, Congo-DRC and Equatorial guinea. While in Latin America, the countries affected by zoonoses host the worlds largest rainforest, the Amazon rainforest. In South East Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia also have some raiforests.

 

One important thing to note is that the rainforests of Africa, South East Asia and its associated archipelagos, and tropical America they match in their animal and plant diversity.

 

So what are the animals that are shared bewteen these rainforests which could be major carriers of zoonotic diseases?

 

Below is a list of animals associated with zoonotic diseases, I beleive one will be able to pack out some animals that are associated with rainforests.

 

Higher Mammals	Other mammals	Birds	Others
Cattle	Bats	Geese	Ticks
Chimpanzees	Hamsters	Chickens	Snails
Humans	Hyraxes		Mosquitoes
Gorillas	Oppossum		Fleas
Monkeys	Rabbits and hares		Flies
Dogs	Raccoons		Lice
Cats	Rats		Assasin bugs
Horses
Pigs
Sheep
Sloth
Wolves

In my next entry I will discuss further some of the major zoonotic outbreaks in the world and what is being done to control this emerging public health issue.

References

www.healthmap.org/predict/