Veterinary Epidemiology and Zoonosis

INTRODUCTION

• Beyond the fact that zoonoses infect both man and lower vertebrates, they are a biologically heterogeneous group of infections.
• Consider, as examples, two cestodal zoonoses, taeniosis and dipylidiosis.
  • In Taenia saginata infection, a vertebrate, the cow, fills approximately the same biological role as an invertebrate, the flea, does in Dipylidium caninum infection.
  • Man’s involvement in the two life cycles also is completely different.
  • In the epidemiology of taeniosis, man and the other vertebrate are both essential, while in dipylidiosis, man’s participation is not required and human infection is sporadic and usually confined to one particular age group.
  • Thus, T.saginata depends upon man for survival as a species while D.caninum does not. 
• To create awareness among public regarding zoonoses, it is vital to classify zoonotic diseases shared in nature between human beings and animals.