Pet Associated Diseases

Pet Associated Diseases

Any condition linked to a domestic animal. A pet can be the direct cause of the disease—e.g., attacking the owner, popularly known as ‘turning’, an event that is relatively common in animals not bred for domestication (e.g., coyotes, foxes, big cats, pythons and weasels), but also certain breeds of dogs (e.g., American bulldogs/pit bull terriers). Pets can also act as vectors for disease, e.g., dogs—rabies; cats—toxoplasmosis; parrots—psittacosis