Our companion animals can, with or without symptoms, carry infectious agents which have a potential to induce diseases in man, so called Zoonoses. An immune compromised person has an increased risk of becoming infected by various agents, and thus also has an increased risk to become infected by one?s own companion animals. A study was carried out within the veterinary program at SLU, Sweden, based on a questionnaire answered by 31 physicians, 31 veterinarians and interviews of 30 immune compromised persons in Sweden. The study investigated the following questions: Which Zoonoses do physicians and veterinarians consider to be the most important to inform immunecompromised persons about? How are immunecompromised persons being informed by their physicians about the risk of catching Zoonoses from their companion animals? How are the owners of zoonosis-infected animals being informed by their veterinarians about Zoonoses? Does veterinary medicine and human medicine communicate about Zoonoses, in order to take the best care of immunecompromised persons in contact with animals? The results of our study imply that: - Physicians and veterinarians differ about which Zoonoses immunecompromised persons should be informed about. - Only oral information is passed to immunecompromised persons and animal owners.

A zoonosis is a disease or infection that is naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. The majority of infectious diseases that affect humans are Zoonoses. Environments where wild animals, domestic animals and humans live in close proximity with no or small boundaries in the ecological system favor the transmission of diseases between animals and humans. The above described situation is more common in low income countries, where humans and animals live in high density and Zoonoses are generally more common. The study was conducted in Cambodia.

There are several different kinds of bacteria that has developed resistance against the antibiotic agents used in todays medicine. Most of them has evolved from the human health care but several of them has gone over to also cause problems in the animal health care. They often occur as nosocomial infections and the greatest risk of exposure to them is during health care. Since infections with a resistant bacterium can be difficult to treat, it is desirable to prevent this spread, especially since an animal treated in a hospital often is more susceptible to infection, due to their primary condition. In Sweden the current resistance situation is good and is yearly monitored by the Swedish Veterinary Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring (SVARM) programme.

The conservation of great apes faces many challenges, one of which is the threat of infectious disease outbreaks. Zoonotic transmission of respiratory diseases from humans to wild great apes has recently been confirmed. Since respiratory disease is one of the major causes of death in both gorillas and chimpanzees, this gives reason for major concern. Little is known about the risks of disease transmission from humans to great apes in natural environments, and there is a need for systematic risk evaluation. Researchers, conservation staff and tourists spend time in very close proximity of wild great apes, sometimes during long time periods, which poses a potential risk of disease spillover. However, the presence of researchers and tourists has been shown to decrease the risk of poaching, making the matter increasingly complex.

Jakten på bushmeat är en aktuell och komplex fråga i Central- och Västafrika som har ägnats mycket uppmärksamhet och forskning inom flera vetenskapliga discipliner. Köttet och djurdelarna innebär både en födokälla för fattiga, samt som inkomstkälla vid ökande efterfrågan från västvärlden och Asien där djurdelarna ses som lyxvaror och används inom blandannat naturmedicin. Jakt på de stora aporna såsom gorillor, schimpanser och bonoboer utgör ett hot mot arternas överlevnad och en minskad biodiversitet men konsumtion av djurdelarna innebär också en risk mot folkhälsan. De bidragande faktorerna till handeln med bushmeat är många men särskilt stor är skövling av stora skogsområden samt minskade habitat. Vägar som går genom tidigare svårtillgängliga områden och bättre jaktvapen har också haft stor påverkan och resulterat i att många av de utrotningshotade djuren minskar i antal. Uppkomst och spridning av nya sjukdomar är ett hot mot både djur- och folkhälsa när människan konsumerar och kommer i kontakt med sina närmaste släktingar. Olika typer av virus såsom Ebola, SIV, SFV och STLV har visat sig och anses vara patogener som kan förväntas ge uppkomst av nya infektiösa sjukdomar.

This paper is a compilation of some of the important viral zoonosis that can be passed from apes and simians (simian and prosimian) to man. Viral Zoonoses are viral diseases that can be passed from animals to humans. The paper will also provide a better insight of the risks workers and visitors to the zoo can be exposed to. The viruses that this paper is focused on is herpes Bvirus, simian T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (STLV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), Ebola virus, Marburg virus, yellowfever virus, monkeypoxvirus and hepatitis B virus. The choice of viruses is based on how infectious they are and how pathogenic they are.

Emerging infectious diseases are a recurring threat to both human and animal health. Understanding the multiple causes behind the emergence of new diseases is key to the prevention of new and potentially devastating outbreaks. The list of underlying causes is long, including a variety of anthropogenic, environmental, molecular and climatic changes that promote the emergence and spread of disease. Two of these factors are central to the emergence of new diseases and receive special attention in this study. The spread of disease from wildlife to livestock and diseases that spread from animals to humans (Zoonoses) are of importance as they implicated in the majority of EID events.