Zoonosis

A zoonosis (/zˈɒnəsɪs, ˌzəˈnsɪs/ ;[1] plural zoonoses) or zoonotic disease is an infectious disease of humans caused by a pathogen (an infectious agent, such as a bacterium, virus, parasite, or prion) that can jump from a non-human vertebrate to a human. When humans infect non-humans, it is called reverse zoonosis or anthroponosis.[2][1][3][4]

Major modern diseases such as Ebola and salmonellosis are zoonoses. HIV was a zoonotic disease transmitted to humans in the early part of the 20th century, though it has now evolved into a separate human-only disease.[5][6][7] Human infection with animal influenza viruses is rare, as they do not transmit easily to or among humans.[8] However, avian and swine influenza viruses in particular possess high zoonotic potential,[9] and these occasionally recombine with human strains of the flu and can cause pandemics such as the 2009 swine flu.[10] Zoonoses can be caused by a range of disease pathogens such as emergent viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites; of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic.[11] Most human diseases originated in non-humans; however, only diseases that routinely involve non-human to human transmission, such as rabies, are considered direct zoonoses.[12]

Zoonoses have different modes of transmission. In direct zoonosis the disease is directly transmitted from non-humans to humans through media such as air (influenza) or bites and saliva (rabies).[13] In contrast, transmission can also occur via an intermediate species (referred to as a vector), which carry the disease pathogen without getting sick. The term is from Ancient Greek: ζῷον zoon "animal" and νόσος nosos "sickness".

Host genetics plays an important role in determining which non-human viruses will be able to make copies of themselves in the human body. Dangerous non-human viruses are those that require few mutations to begin replicating themselves in human cells. These viruses are dangerous since the required combinations of mutations might randomly arise in the natural reservoir.[14]

  1. ^ a b "zoonosis". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  2. ^ Messenger AM, Barnes AN, Gray GC (2014). "Reverse zoonotic disease transmission (zooanthroponosis): a systematic review of seldom-documented human biological threats to animals". PLOS ONE. 9 (2): e89055. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...989055M. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0089055. PMC 3938448. PMID 24586500.
  3. ^ WHO. "Zoonoses". Archived from the original on 3 January 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2014.
  4. ^ "A glimpse into Canada's highest containment laboratory for animal health: The National Centre for Foreign Animal Diseases". science.gc.ca. Government of Canada. 22 October 2018. Archived from the original on 20 June 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2019. Zoonoses are infectious diseases which jump from a non-human host or reservoir into humans.
  5. ^ Sharp PM, Hahn BH (September 2011). "Origins of HIV and the AIDS pandemic". Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine. 1 (1): a006841. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a006841. PMC 3234451. PMID 22229120.
  6. ^ Faria NR, Rambaut A, Suchard MA, Baele G, Bedford T, Ward MJ, et al. (October 2014). "HIV epidemiology. The early spread and epidemic ignition of HIV-1 in human populations". Science. 346 (6205): 56–61. Bibcode:2014Sci...346...56F. doi:10.1126/science.1256739. PMC 4254776. PMID 25278604.
  7. ^ Marx PA, Alcabes PG, Drucker E (June 2001). "Serial human passage of simian immunodeficiency virus by unsterile injections and the emergence of epidemic human immunodeficiency virus in Africa". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 356 (1410): 911–920. doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.0867. PMC 1088484. PMID 11405938.
  8. ^ World Health Organization (3 October 2023). "Influenza (Avian and other zoonotic)". who.int. Retrieved 6 April 2024.
  9. ^ Abdelwhab, EM; Mettenleiter, TC (April 2023). "Zoonotic Animal Influenza Virus and Potential Mixing Vessel Hosts". Viruses. 15 (4): 980. doi:10.3390/v15040980. PMC 10145017. PMID 37112960.
  10. ^ Scotch M, Brownstein JS, Vegso S, Galusha D, Rabinowitz P (September 2011). "Human vs. animal outbreaks of the 2009 swine-origin H1N1 influenza A epidemic". EcoHealth. 8 (3): 376–380. doi:10.1007/s10393-011-0706-x. PMC 3246131. PMID 21912985.
  11. ^ Taylor LH, Latham SM, Woolhouse ME (July 2001). "Risk factors for human disease emergence". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences. 356 (1411): 983–989. doi:10.1098/rstb.2001.0888. PMC 1088493. PMID 11516376.
  12. ^ Marx PA, Apetrei C, Drucker E (October 2004). "AIDS as a zoonosis? Confusion over the origin of the virus and the origin of the epidemics". Journal of Medical Primatology. 33 (5–6): 220–226. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0684.2004.00078.x. PMID 15525322.
  13. ^ "Zoonosis". Medical Dictionary. Archived from the original on 28 June 2013. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
  14. ^ Warren CJ, Sawyer SL (April 2019). "How host genetics dictates successful viral zoonosis". PLOS Biology. 17 (4): e3000217. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.3000217. PMC 6474636. PMID 31002666.