Zoonoses. Animal health is an important factor in food safety because some diseases, the so-called zoonoses, such as brucellosis, salmonellosis and listeriosis can be transmitted to humans in particular through contaminated food.

Article by Frederick A. Murphy, University of California, Davis for Emerging Infectious Diseases July-September 1998. In the past few years, emergent disease episodes have increased; nearly all have involved zoonotic or species-jumping infectious agents. Because there is no way to predict when or where the next important new zoonotic pathogen will emerge or what its ultimate importance might be, investigation at the first sign of emergence of a new zoonotic disease is particularly important.