Preventing reverse zoonoses: People infecting animals
Dear Readers: Animals catching diseases from humans, called reverse zoonoses, affects species around the world. These include mussels contaminated with the hepatitis A virus; cheetahs that contract influenza A; tuberculosis being transmitted to Asian elephants; and the parasite Giardia duodenalis being passed on to African painted dogs. For details, see the study by Ali Messenger et al. entitled “Reverse zoonotic disease transmission (zooanthroponosis): a systematic review of seldom-documented human biological threats to animals,” published in PLoS One in 2014.
Because of their evolutionary closeness to humans, great apes are especially vulnerable to our diseases. In a 2018 literature review, researchers documented 33 probable or confirmed disease transmission events from humans to chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. Those events included deadly cases of measles, human metapneumovirus and the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. For details, see the study by Emily Dunay et al. entitled “Pathogen Transmission from Humans to Great Apes is a Growing Threat to Primate Conservation,” published in Ecohealth in 2018.
Greater biosecurity is called for to prevent reverse zoonoses by people infected with potential pathogens, especially tourists entering wildlife habitats, potentially causing even more harm than poaching and agricultural encroachment.
I would like to advise readers who want to learn about holistic and integrative veterinary care, as well as conventional allopathic veterinarians, to subscribe to a publication called the Innovative Veterinary Care Journal. To do so, visit ivcjournal.com.
I have just finished reading the winter 2024 edition and was very encouraged to see topics such as: the evolution of veterinary social work; dealing with separation anxiety in dogs; minimizing stress in feline patients, and what their owners can do; correcting common gut health issues; and, most interestingly and eloquently detailed, a review of why it is important to consider fascia health.
“Go yoga!” as my mother would say (she taught it until the age of 96). Dog yoga is play, as it is for cats and so many animals, from bears to wolves, all of whom love to run, leap, climb and wrestle. Such activities that move and stimulate the fascia system prompt metabolic and endocrine processes that in turn release natural opiates, cannabinoids, endorphins and the bonding chemical oxytocin. These activities are also emotionally rewarding, and potentially beneficial to the immune system.
From Nature.com: “For the first time, a cloned rhesus monkey has lived into adulthood – surviving for more than 2 years so far. … It was achieved using a slightly different approach from the conventional technique that was used to clone Dolly the sheep and other mammals, including long-tailed macaques, the first primates to ever be cloned. … The new technique could unlock possibilities for using cloned primates in drug testing and behavioral research.”
“We could produce a large number of genetically uniform monkeys that can be used for drug-efficacy tests,” says neuroscientist Mu-ming Poo. (Full story: Nature.com, Jan. 16)
Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns. Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.