Emerging Infectious Diseases has been devoted to zoonotic diseases; the first zoonoses issue was published 1 year ago, in December 2004. The publication of this second theme issue attests to the frequency, visibility, and attention that these diseases are receiving. A year ago, we commented on several prevailing factors worldwide that facilitate the emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases, am...

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) damage agriculture and the environment, as well transmit diseases to animals people. Hunters are particularly vulnerable zoonotic disease risks when harvesting wild...

Exotic pets, including hedgehogs, have become popular in recent years among pet owners, especially in North America. Such animals can carry and introduce zoonotic agents, a fact well illustrated by the recent outbreak of monkeypox in pet prairie dogs. We reviewed known and potential zoonotic diseases that could be carried and transmitted by pet hedgehogs or by wild-caught hedgehogs that have be...

The epizootiologic, climatic, and ecologic conditions in the Middle East, combined with socioeconomic and agricultural structures in Israel, have created a unique and hazardous veterinary public health situation in this country. In this paper, emerging zoonotic diseases are newly introduced disease agents or endemic zoonoses whose previous epidemiologic patterns have changed. As of 1996, 15 zoo...

The causative agents of a number of emerging zoonotic diseases have been identified as paramyxoviruses originating in bats. We report here the complete genome sequence of two Teviot paramyxoviruses, novel rubulaviruses isolated from urine samples collected from pteropid bats in Australia. The zoonotic potential of Teviot paramyxovirus is undetermined.

Many new, emerging and re-emerging diseases of humans are caused by pathogens which originate from animals or products of animal origin. A wide variety of animal species, both domestic and wild, act as reservoirs for these pathogens, which may be viruses, bacteria or parasites. Given the extensive distribution of the animal species affected, the effective surveillance, prevention and control of...