Summary of Zoonotic Diseases

Agent Relevant Characteristics Transmission Clinical Characteristics

Foodborne diseases
Campylobacter jejuni Paradox: Food borne Source of food - GI disoders
Very sensitive to food - Uncooked meat contamination - Complications:
processing methods and (mostly poultry) Guillain Barré Syndrome
environmental stresses yet - Raw milk Appendicitis like synd.
major cause of foodborne - non treated water Septicemia
gastroenteritis - shellfish Meningitis
- cross-contamination Arthritis
from meat

Direct contact with

animal reservoir

Salmonella Foodborne Source of food Ingestion from food – 3

S. enteriditis contamination paths:
S. typhimurium - contaminate eggs 1. Asymptomatic carriage
(majority) - vertical 2. Asymptomatic carriage
contamination from with septicemia
- uncooked meat ovary to yolk 3. Clinical salmonellosis –
(especially poultry) if: immunodeficient or
- horizontal ingestion of high
- cross-contamination contamination from amount = GI symptoms
from meat cloaca to egg
Complications:
- Septicemia
- Bone and joint
infection
- Endocarditis
- Immunomodulated
 arthritis

Staphylococcus aureus Pathogenicity comes from Foodborne Source of food - GI symptoms

enterotoxin which binds contamination: - Headaches
to digestive tract nervous - uncooked meat - Vertigo
system -cross contamination 1- Primary
- human contamination animal Complications
Found in skin and of handled food production - Dehydration
nasopharynx of humans - raw milk - comensal - Comatose condition
and animals - Convulsion
carriage by
Found in GI tract of - Shock
animals
humans
- infection - Cardiovascular collapse
with pus
- mastites

2. Food
processing
-
contamination
of skin to
meat or pus
to meat
-
contamination
of meat with
human nasal
secretion or
unwashed
hands after
 bathroom
visit( intestinal
carriage)

Clostridium botulinum Anaerobic  cannot Foodborne Source of food Flacid paralysis

survive in oxygen - Canned foods with contamination: Autonomic nervous system
environment. When there unproper heating or failure
is oxygen he becomes a salting 1. Intestinal Death by respiratory
spore (no metabolic carriage in paralysis
activity). When there is animals + bad
no oxygen he slaughter
germinates(goes into state conditions +
with metabolic activity)
inadequate
and produces toxin.
salting or
Spore-forming heating in
canned food
Found in environment (no oxygen)
(soil) and GI tract of 
humans and animals germination
and toxin
Pathogenicity comes from production by
neurotoxin that binds to
bactéria
presynaptic receivers in
the neuromuscular 2. Soil
junction, inhibiting contamination
acethylcoline release,  vegetable
leading to flaccid /fruit
paralysis. contamination
 can/jars
with no air +
inadequate
 heating 
germination

Escherichia coli Survives in acid media Foodborne Source of food Ingestion  abdominal
O157:H7 – main serotype enhanced by refrigeration - Raw or undercooked contamination: pain  some recover but
Synonymes  allows survival of ground meat most develop bloody
- EHEC – enterohemorragic acidic barrier in stomach - Raw milk Feces of cattle diarrhea  most recover
E.coli - Cross –contamination (main), sheep, goats but some develop UHS
- VTEC- verotoxigenic Produces toxin similar to during food preparation and deer (Uremic hemolytic
producing E.coli that produced by Shiga with raw meat syndrome ) some die
bacteria (shiga-like toxin) - contaminated fruits but most survive  half
- STEC – shiga toxin like with feces during recover, half have
producing E. coli Pathogenicity linked to cultivation chronic renal failure
toxin. - contaminated water
with feces
Shiga-like toxin is composed Complications
of 2 major subunits: A and B. -person-person contact - UHS  renal failure
B unit – allows binding to by oral-fecal route - TTP –
Gb3 receptor in host cell - contact with farm thrombocytopenic
A unit – inhibits host protein animals thrombotic purpura
synthesis and induces
Neurological failure
apoptosis
Host cells: endothelial cells,
renal glomerular endothelium
(colon, kidneys, brain)
There are 2 ypes of
shigatoxin:
Stx1 – very conserved
structure with few variants
Stx2- more toxic, many
variants, host specific
Colon adhesion and
colonization
 After passage through the
acidic barrier, EHEC forms
attaching and effacing (A/E)
lesions on the mucosal
epithelium at the recto-anal
junction, allowing for its
colonization there. A/E
lesions are characterized by
destruction of microvilli,
intimate attachment of the
bacteria to the cell, and
accumulation of polymerized
actin beneath the site of
bacterial attachment to form a
pedestal-like structure
cupping individual bacteria.
The genes required for
formation of A/E lesions are
encoded within the
chromosomal pathogenicity
island known as the locus for
enterocyte effacement (LEE) .

Hepatitis E virus Long incubation period Foodborne Source of food GI symptoms

- Raw delicatessen contamination:
Higher mortality rate than (sausages)
hepatitis A - Raw or uncooked - Feces of
pork infected pigs
Affects adults instead of or humans
- Contaminated
young people (hepatitis A
water
case)

Occupational activity
 linked to swine
Mycobacterium bovis Very long time to develop Foodborne Source of food Mostly intestinal
- Ingestion of raw contamination: tuberculosis
Very insidious disease – milk
can have asymptomatic - Bacteria in Pulmonary tuberculosis 
animals Occupational disease mammary for people who work with
- Contact with gland of cows
Chronic disease cows infected cows
- Bacterial
shedding in
aerossols and
all type of
secretions in
cows that
humans can
have contact
with

Norovirus Bind to Histo-blood group Foodborne Source of food GI symptoms

antigens (HBGA). People - Shellfish – mainly contamination:
who are non-secretors (do not oysters since they
have this antigen in the gut) are eaten raw Norovirus in sewage
do not get infected with to oceans  ocean
norovirus. 80% of human water filtered by
population is sensitive shellfish raised in
(secretor). coastal areas 
shellfish
Very low infectious dose contamination

Virus is very resistant to GI  linked to

environmental factors human sewage
(sunlight, temperature,etc.) so
 it survives in the environment GII  linked to
human and pig
Shellfish have some ligands feces in sewage
that favor NoV selection

Non-foodborne diseases
West Nile Virus Similar to other flavivirus( Hosts Transmission Birds
dengue, rift valley fever,etc.) - Asymptomatic – most
 difficult to differentiate - Horses - Mosquitos – in Europe. Only
- Birds some species mortalities found were
Serologically very similar to - Humans –specific in ducks infected with
other diseases that cause other not  Israeli strain which is
encephalopathy in Europe: Vectors not so species similar to US strain
tick-borne encephalitis and - Mosquitos –
specific when - High mortality – USA
usutu virus, so you can’t especially Culex
differ them birds migrate
- Ticks Horses
- Ticks –
especially - Neuralgia
Strain with long viremia is
necessary in migratory birds argasidae - Neurological disorders
because if not when bird (soft bird Humans
arrives he can no longer ticks) - 80% asymptomatic
transmit the disease since he - Direct
is not in viremia anymore (no - 20% -fever, flu
transmission symptoms
virus in blood for mosquito to
get).  low - <1% - neurological
occurrence – disorders with
No one knows where virus only shown meningoencephalitis
goes during the winter. Some experimentall and death.
hypthoses are that it stays in y
alligators (USA) or - Blood Prevention
amphibians (Europe) transfusion or - No stagnant water
grafts - Fish eating larva – in
There was one outbreak of USA
 WNV in France in 1962 and - Aerial spraying of
it reappeared in 2000. When inseticides
there are outbreaks you stop - Repellents on animals
blood transfusions in case - Vaccination – 4
someone is incubating the
vaccines being
disease.
developed now in USA.

Rabies virus Lyssavirus Primary hosts -Animal bite Prevention

(Reservoirs) - Contact with - Dog vaccination (main
Small RNA – no error Bats broken skin or one)
correction when it Dogs mucosa - Human prophylaxis
replicates can evolve very Several wild species – - transplants, when exposed
fast depends on country and transfusions (normally bitten):
region of country
vaccination and
Has many variants with
different reservoirs Secondary hosts hyperserum
Domestic animals - Some regions do
vaccination on wild
End host animal reservoirs
Humans