A zoonosis is an infectious disease which is naturally transmitted from animals to humans.

The disease is spread by zoonotic pathogens – microorganisms which may be parasitic, viral, bacterial or fungal. They may be more commonly known as germs or bugs.

Most germs are species-specific. They are adapted to live in a single species and our bodies are conditioned to them.

They usually do not cause serious infection unless they transfer from one species to another.

Some 60% of known infectious diseases are zoonotic and 75% of new and emerging infections/diseases are zoonotic (eg viruses, Covid-19, bird flu, swine flu, SARS).

We can expect there to be further examples of these in the future.