Emergence of animal and human infectious diseases

Abstract

Emerging infectious diseases are becoming more and more important throughout the world. Emerging or reemerging infectious diseasesare characterized by a high and rapid increase of their incidence and by the uncertainty about their exact impact on humans or on animalsor on both in the case of zoonoses. In this paper, the conditions or «drivers» of emergence and reemergence are presented and classified according to three parameters: the environment, host(s) and pathogen. Two examples of emerging diseases are presented: the firstone concerns SARS in humans with the identification of potential animal reservoirs and the second one concerns the bluetongue virus,which has emerged recently in ruminants in Europe. The early identification, control and prevention of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases lies not only with clinicians and public health experts, but importantly with veterinarians, animal scientists and wildlife ecologists; surveillance of perturbations in ecosystems and surveillance of the animal and human health continuum must be done at the local,national and international levels to ensure that we are well prepared for future emerging threats.