Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Sep 15;86(3-4):216-23.
doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2008.02.009. Epub 2008 Apr 18.

Emerging zoonoses: the challenge for public health and biodefense

Frederick A Murphy  1
Affiliations

Emerging zoonoses: the challenge for public health and biodefense

Frederick A Murphy. Prev Vet Med. .

Abstract

The concept of new and emerging diseases has captured the public interest and has revitalized the public health infectious disease research community. This interest has also resulted in competition for funding and turf wars between animal health and public health scientists and public officials and, in some cases, has delayed and hindered progress toward effective prevention, control and biodefense. There is a dynamic list of outbreaks causing substantial morbidity and mortality in humans and often in the reservoir animal species. Some agents have the potential to grow into major epidemics. There are many determinants that influence the emergence of diseases of concern that require the use of current understanding of the nature of agent persistence and spread. Additional factors that are global must be added to plans for prevention and control. To this complex mix has been added the potential for accidental or malicious release of agents. The nature of emerging infectious agents and their impact is largely unpredictable. Models that strive to predict the dynamics of agents may be useful but can also blind us to increasing disease risks if it does not match a specific model. Field investigations of early events will be critical and should drive prevention and control actions. Many disease agents have developed strategies to overcome extremes of reservoir qualities like population size and density. Every infectious agent spreads easier when its hosts are closer together. Zoonoses must be dealt with at the interface of human and animal health by all available information. Lessons learned from the emergence of and response to agents like West Nile virus, H5N1 avian influenza, SARS and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, the cause of new-variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans, must be used to create better plans for response and meet the challenge for public health and biodefense.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Convergence model developed to emphasize the complexity of interacting determinants favoring the emergence of pathogens (Smolinski et al., 2003).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. King L., Hamburg M.A. National Academies Press; Washington: 2005. Animal Health at the Crossroads: Preventing, Detecting, and Diagnosing Animal Diseases. and the Committee on Assessing the Nation's Framework for Addressing Animal Diseases, National Research Council.
    1. Knobler S., Mahmoud A., Lemon S., Mack A., Sivitz L., Oberholtzer K., editors. Learning from SARS: Preparing for the Next Disease Outbreak. National Academies Press; Washington: 2004. - PubMed
    1. Lederberg J., Shope R.E., Oaks S.C. National Academies Press; Washington: 1992. Emerging Infections: Microbial Threats to Health in the United States. and the Committee on Emerging Microbial Threats to Health, Institute of Medicine. - PubMed
    1. Moon H.W. National Academies Press; Washington: 2002. Countering Agricultural Bioterrorism. and the Committee on Biological Threats to Agricultural Plants and Animals, National Research Council.
    1. Murphy F.A. A perspective on emerging zoonoses. In: Burroughs T., Knobler S., Lederberg J., editors. The Emergence of Zoonotic Diseases: Understanding the Impact on Animal and Human Health. National Academies Press; Washington: 2001. - PubMed

MeSH terms