Animal Diseases and Human Health: Using Information Networks to Guide International Policy

Abstract

Zoonotic diseases transmissible from animals to humans are of increasing concern in today’s global economy. For example, avian influenza (AI) is an omnipresent human flu pandemic threat calling for surveillance and bio-security as first lines of defense. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) which affects beef and dairy animals did threaten a global human Crutzfeld-Jacob disease epidemic which is now seen as largely past. But since there are only postmortem tests for BSE, effective and continued risk communication is critical to containing the potential of a future global epidemic.