Abstract
Companion animals especially cats and dogs can provide a bridge for transmission of emerging bacterial diseases that are zoonotic in nature. Zoonotic diseases had posed numerous risk to ownership of companion animals by human either through direct or indirect contact especially in recent years where livestock species are being used as pets. Furthermore, companion animals could play a significant role in zoonosis as a potential reservoirs of various infections. These diseases have impacted greatly to the definition of new paradigms posed by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases particularly relating to biosecurity policies and broadly to the protection of public health. Multi-sectorial collaboration for disease containment should be emphasized towards curtailing and managing health risks regarding infectious zoonotic diseases. http://doi.org/10.5455/javar.2018.e267
Highlights
Over the recent years, there are numerous cases of emergence of new infectious diseases and re-emergence of existing ones across different geographical region with changes in their epidemiology almost yearly (Bloom et al, 2017)
Majority of emerging diseases are zoonotic in nature and they are becoming widely used to refer to the manifestation of a presently obscured disease or an earlier known disease that has broadened in a different population or geographical region and oftentimes appended by a distinct alteration in virulence and increase in incidence (Gortazar et al, 2014). These infections are often associated with emergence of antimicrobial resistance against chemotherapeutic agents which is a major public health problem (Abatcha, 2017)
Cats and dogs appeared to be the most frequently kept of all the companion animals with an estimated population of 185 millions in Europe followed by pet birds (39 million) (FEDIAF, 2016)
Summary
There are numerous cases of emergence of new infectious diseases and re-emergence of existing ones across different geographical region with changes in their epidemiology almost yearly (Bloom et al, 2017). Companion animals especially cats and dogs can provide a bridge for transmission of emerging bacterial diseases that are zoonotic in nature. Zoonotic diseases had posed numerous risk to ownership of companion animals by human either through direct or indirect contact especially in recent years where livestock species are being used as pets.
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