Animal Diseases and Your Health

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Summary

Animal diseases that people can catch are called zoonoses. Many diseases affecting humans can be traced to animals or animal products. You can get a disease directly from an animal, or indirectly, through the environment.

Farm animals can carry diseases. If you touch them or things they have touched, like fencing or buckets, wash your hands thoroughly. Adults should make sure children who visit farms or petting zoos wash up as well.

Though they may be cute and cuddly, wild animals may carry germs, viruses, and parasites. Deer and deer mice carry ticks that cause Lyme disease. Some wild animals may carry rabies. Enjoy wildlife from a distance.

Pets can also make you sick. Reptiles pose a particular risk. Turtles, snakes and iguanas can transmit Salmonella bacteria to their owners. You can get rabies from an infected dog or toxoplasmosis from handling kitty litter of an infected cat. The chance that your dog or cat will make you sick is small. You can reduce the risk by practicing good hygiene, keeping pet areas clean and keeping your pets' shots up to date.

Start Here

• Facts about Diseases that Can Spread between Animals and People (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Infections that Pets Can Spread (Nemours Foundation) Also in Spanish
• Ways to Stay Healthy Around Animals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Related Issues

• Avian Influenza (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

Specifics

• About Bat Flu (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Backyard Poultry (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Birds (Pets) (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Cats (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Clinical Features of Zoonotic Hookworm (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Controlling Wild Rodent Infestations (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• COVID-19 and Animals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Disease Risks for People at Dog Social Events (American Veterinary Medical Association)
• Dogs (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Farm Animals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Horses (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Key Facts about Tularemia (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Pets and Pasteurella Infections (American Academy of Pediatrics) Also in Spanish
• Preventing Rabies from Bats (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
• Ringworm and Fungal Nail Infections Basics (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Journal Articles References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)

• Article: Zoonotic Dirofilaria sp. "hongkongensis" in subcutaneous nodules from dogs and cats,...
• Article: Prevalence and risk factors associated with zoonotic gastrointestinal helminths transmitted by...
• Article: Global burden of zoonotic infectious diseases of poverty, 1990-2021.
• Animal Diseases and Your Health -- see more articles

Find an Expert

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Also in Spanish
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Women

• People at Increased Risk for Toxoplasmosis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)