What is the difference between a foreign animal disease and an emerging pathogen?
The principal difference is that foreign animal diseases are recognized disease agents, whereas emerging pathogens are new disease agents that have not previously been recognized as such. Q: Can humans contract foreign animal diseases? A:Humans and animals share susceptibility to many microbial and viral pathogens. Many foreign animal diseases are specific pathogens of animals and do not infect humans. Some notable exceptions are highly pathogenic avian influenza, bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), Rift Valley Fever, Nipah Virus, and West Nile Virus, that infect humans as well as animals. Q: Where do emerging pathogens come from? A: Emerging pathogens arise from viruses or microbes that infect one or more of the myriad of animals in the environment. Usually they do not cause overt disease in their normal host. They make themselves known when they cause disease in a new species of animal such as humans or their livestock. The process is one constantly ongoing in nature. Viruses and m
