Globally, there are numerous infectious diseases, normally foundin vertebrates other than humans, that have been documented to betransmitted to humans and cause human infections. These"zoonotic infections" are the topic of this book.

This book is arranged to have chapters by the type of animal.Within each chapter is information on the animal(s), the normalflora of the animal(s), and the diseases that have been transmittedfrom this group of animals by bites and/or scratches, contact(including transmission via ectoparasites such as fleas and ticks), ingestion of the animal, and other documented transmission, such asinfestation by members of the genus Sarcoptes as has beendocumented in humans exposed to dogs with "mange," in"cavalryman itch" from horses, from contact withdromedaries, etc.

There are a number of additional issues that takeoff from afundamental knowledge of zoonotic infections. These include aworking knowledge of many of the agends of bioterrorism, as theevents of 2001 demonstrated of the use of Bacillus anthracis sporesin mailed letters. Another area of importance is that ofemerging infections. An analysis of 335 origins of emerginginfectious diseases between 1940 and 2004 revealed that these aredominated by infections that are zoonotic in origin, comprisingsome 60.3% of the emerging infections. Of these, 71.8% originatedin wildlife.

Given the importance of this topic in our understanding ofinfectious disease, a timely source is a necessary addition to thecurrent available literature.