World Zoonoses Day is held every year on July 6. The day commemorates July 6, 1885, when Louis Pasteur successfully administered the first vaccine against Rabies virus, a zoonotic disease. Theme day raises awareness for the risk of zoonotic diseases.
Zoonoses are infectious diseases (virus, bacteria and parasites) that can be spread from animals to humans, and vice versa. Zoonoses can spread from direct contact with animals or indirectly, vector-borne or food-borne.
Zoonotic diseases are very common, for example tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis. But also many foodborne infectious diseases like salmonella, Yersinia, EHEC, botulism or campylobacter are all also zoonoses.
How to avoid zoonotic diseases?
In clinical laboratories remember to maintain high-quality diagnostics. Labquality organizes annually following external quality assessment schemes for zoonotic diagnostics:
Virology
5560 / Puumala virus, antibodies
5099 / Tick-borne encephalitis virus, antibodies
5635 / Dengue virus, antigen and antibody detection
Bacteriology
5180 / Salmonella, culture
5960 / Borrelia burgdorferi, antibodies
5190 / Faecal culture
5191 / Faecal bacterial pathogens, nucleic acid detection
Parasitology
5430 / Malaria, antigen detection
5420 / Toksoplasma, antibodies
5450 / Parasites in feces, virtual microscopy
5470, 5471 / Parasites in blood, virtual microscopy
5472 / Giardia and Cryptosporidium, nucleic acid detection
Learn more from zoonoses:
http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/food_and_waterborne_disease/Pages/index.aspx
https://www.thl.fi/en/web/infectious-diseases
Learn more from Labquality’s EQA schemes: