The Emergence of Zoonotic Diseases Understanding the Impact on Animal and Human Health: Workshop Summary (2002) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 1-9
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For some zoonotic infectious agents, general oversight and control responsibility has largely been in the hands of people associated with animal health and agriculture. These agents include those that cause substantial morbidity or mortality (or diagnostic difficulty)
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So, the concept of new and emerging zoonotic diseases has not been fully exploited in any of the communities dealing with zoonoses. This situation seems especially appalling given the fact that nearly all emergent disease episodes of the past 10 years have involved zoonotic infectious agents.
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For example, most virulent alphaviruses spread by mosquitoes produce very high viremia levels, or viral load levels, in their reservoir vertebrate hosts, so as to better assure transmission to the next feeding mosquito. Thus, we say that high vertebrate host viremia represents a key evolutionary advantage.
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Rather than seeing potential threats as being largely confined to exotic hosts in isolated regions, we should consider, for example, the reservoir host population represented by the cattle herd of the United Kingdom. In the 1980s, as dairy cattle were fed bovine offal in feed supplements, there followed an epidemic of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease.
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Responsible administrative leaders in disease prevention and control institutions need to know a great deal about the zoonotic infectious agents themselves, their reservoir hosts, their ecology and natural history, and the systems used in the past for their control. Zoonotic diseases cannot be dealt with effectively when they are last on a list of administrative responsibilities.
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In 1995, when an epidemic of Venezuelan equine encephalitis occurreci in South America, reaction in the United States shouici have been driven by the memory of the 1970-71 epidemic. At that time, as the virus eventually founci its way into Texas, agricultural disease control authorities were prepared to start shooting and burying horses in a massive "sanitary rifle" campaign, while scientists from what is now the fecleral Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and from other health research units provicleci the virologic and epiclemiologic base to override the strategy of agricultural authorities, and the United States Army provicleci its then-new TC83 vaccine.
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But when circumstances have required the involvement of institutions outside the usual public health agency loop, such as agricultural agencies, there often have been difficulties. This was true when the West Nile virus emerged in the United States, when the Nipah virus emerged in Malaysia in 1999, when the HSN1 influenza virus emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, and when the Hendra virus emerged in Australia in 1994.
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Scientists interested in emerging zoonotic diseases represent diverse professional backgrounds and expertise and associate themselves with many different professional organizations. Thus, there has been no continuing venue for exchanging or integrating information and experiences.
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INTROD UCTION 9 health network targeted at emerging diseases, as well as with networks focused on threats posed by livestock animal diseases, crop plant diseases, and bioterrorism. The public would see such an overall system as having a high cost-benefit ratio and as offering a credible approach to solving several high-priority problems most efficiently.
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