However, animals can sometimes carry harmful germs that can be transmitted to people and cause diseases, known as zoonotic diseases or zoonoses. Zoonotic diseases are caused by harmful germs such as viruses, bacteria, parasites and fungi. These germs can cause many different types of illnesses in people and animals, ranging from mild to severe illnesses and even death. Animals can sometimes appear healthy even when they carry germs that can make people sick, depending on the zoonoses.
Recommendations on animal ownership and contact have been published for patients from high-risk groups,5,8,28—35, and there are additional guidelines on animal-assisted interventions in health centers 36. Given the health benefits of keeping animals and the reluctance of patients to leave their pets, the resources highlight the importance of following specific precautions. High-risk patients and their families should monitor the health of their pets more closely and take precautions to reduce the transmission of pathogens. Since few animal vaccines effectively reduce the risks of transmission of zoonotic diseases, other methods are important to reduce diseases associated with pets. Pet contact guidelines address personal hygiene, animal types and ages, and pet health and husbandry practices (box).
Basic hygiene can prevent the spread of Toxoplasma from cats to humans. Wear gloves when handling potentially contaminated material (for example, when working in the garden or picking up the garbage box) and be sure to wash your hands afterwards. Cover children's litter boxes when not in use to prevent stray cats from defecating in them. Salmonella bacteria are spread through faecal-oral transmission; an infected person or animal excretes the bacteria in their faeces, and other people become infected by accidentally ingesting the bacteria after touching a contaminated surface or having contact with infected feces.
Patients without a spleen, older adults, and people with alcohol dependence are particularly at risk of being infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus. In horses, clinical signs of the disease may include fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, lack of coordination, and swelling of the limbs. Outdoor enthusiasts and their pets (including dogs and horses) may be exposed to infectious diseases not only caused by infected animals and poorly cooked food, but also by vector insects and contaminated soil and water. However, contact with pets has been identified as a risk factor for many diseases, and case-control studies and molecular typing data strongly support bacterial sources in pets (p.
If there are concerns that your pet may have contracted any of these diseases, consult your veterinarian. Transmission of the rabies virus without a bite is very rare, but it can occur through scratches, abrasions, open wounds, or mucous membranes contaminated with saliva or other potentially infectious material (such as brain tissue) from a rabid animal. Adult worms shed millions of microscopic eggs that pass through the infected animal's feces to the ground, where the eggs can survive for months or even years. It's a notifiable disease, which means that healthcare providers and laboratories that diagnose lab-confirmed cases of ehrlichiosis must report those cases to local or state health departments, which in turn report them to the CDC.
For immunocompetent patients, who are not pregnant and who are between 5 and 64 years old, the risk of suffering from diseases associated with pets is small. Physicians should be informed about the types of animals with which the patient has contact, the health of the pets that live with the patient, and the use of measures to prevent zoonotic diseases. In the later stages of the disease, or sometimes during recovery, leg damage can be severe enough for skin and tissue shedding to occur. In Canada, the chances of contracting an illness from an animal are small, but it's still a good idea to know what to look for in your pet and how to prevent it from getting sick from an animal.
Several pet species can harbor zoonotic cryptosporidia and giardia, including dogs and cats, which can transmit the organisms through faeces. Diseases that are transmitted from animals to humans, either through direct contact with the animal or with a contaminated surface or water, through the ingestion of animal products (such as meat and milk) or through the transmission of insects from an animal, are called zoonotic diseases (pronounced Zo-oh-not-ik or Zoo-not-ik). .
