Animals are love. They don't just support us but are extremely useful. Right from improving our mental health by providing us with companionship to providing us with food, fibre, livelihoods, travel, sport, etc., the role of animals in our lives cannot be matched. A big population of people around the world have to work around or interact with animals daily, for example, people at a dairy farm or poultry etc. These people either nake their home around these animals or spend most of their time around them. Even apart from people working on the farm, most households have some or the other kind of pet at home. This proves that a huge part of lives involve animals.

While animals help us big time, they might also sometimes carry harmful germs that can be transmitted to people and vice-versa. However, these diseases that occur due to human-animal interaction of any kind are called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. Here are a few facts that you might want to know about Zoonotic Disease that you might want to know of:

  1. Harmful germs like viruses, bacterial, parasites, and fungi cause different types of illnesses in people and animals, ranging from mild to serious illness and even death.

  2. Often, animals that appear healthy may carry germs that can make people sick.

  3. Zoonotic diseases (zoonoses) are naturally transmitted from animals to humans and vice-versa and these diseases are collectively known as zoonoses.

  4. Something called "Neglected zoonotic diseases" a part of "neglected tropical diseases" highlights that the diseases affect mainly poor and marginalized populations in low-resource settings, as per WHO.

  5. Did you know that dog rabies can be eliminated as it is 100% preventable?

  6. How do germs spread between animals and people? Something as simple as petting a zoo animal to closer connections like feeding animals at a farm every day can spread the germs. Right from Direct contact, Indirect contact, Vector-borne, Foodborne, Waterborne, there are many ways zoonoses spread from animals to humans and vice-versa.

  7. Undercooked pork is the main cause of porcine tapeworm infection and it can be prevented. This is one way humans self-infect themselves with the eggs of the porcine tapeworm, Taenia solium.

  8. It is important to know that while anyone can get sick from a zoonotic disease, some people are more at the risk like children younger than 5, Adults older than 65, people with weakened immune systems and pregnant women.

  9. Vector-borne zoonoses are quite common. Like being bitten by a tick, mosquito or a flea.

However, zoonoses can be prevented in different ways depending on your interaction with the animals. It is important to eat fully cooked animal meat and clean up well every time you come in contact with animals.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 05, 2020 11:55 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).