Florida, with its subtropical climate, thriving tourism industry and rapidly growing population, in the midst of large agricultural interests, is highly vulnerable to the introduction of foreign animal diseases and other emerging pathogens.
A foreign animal disease, or FAD, is one which is believed to be absent from the United States and its territories, is transmissible to livestock or poultry, and has the potential to cause a significant health or economic impact. One example is the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus, currently being spread across the earth by migratory birds, which has demonstrated its capacity to infect and kill both domestic poultry and humans.
Emerging pathogens and foreign animal diseases do much more than temporarily affect livestock production. Just the threat of a FAD can shut down a country’s ability to export animals and animal-related products. Disease outbreaks can devastate livestock or poultry populations through high morbidity or mortality and may cause millions, possibly billions, of dollars to be spent to control or eradicate the disease. Current efforts to control the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak have resulted in the wholesale destruction of tens of millions of domestic poultry in numerous countries to both prevent the infection of additional domestic fowl and to reduce the potential threat to human health.
Once infection has been introduced, spread can be very rapid from animal to animal and from farm to farm. Although the means and speed of transmission depends on the specific disease, even a single infected animal can quickly cause a widespread outbreak. Foreign animal diseases and emerging pathogens may also spread into susceptible wildlife populations further complicating, or possibly preventing, disease eradication.
Taken together, these consequences could easily cripple the entire Florida agriculture industry. Secondary economic effects such as limiting travel, culling infected animals, and fear of disease could devastate the tourist industry including ecotourism. Obviously, prevention of diseases would be preferable to any sort of response plan.
The practical goal of the University of Florida Emerging Pathogens Institute, relative to animal diseases, is to provide the tools needed to prevent foreign animal diseases and other emerging pathogens from impacting the health of Floridians, their animals and the State’s economy.
Highly Pathogenic
Avian Influenza
The current outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza, which began in South-east Asia in mid-2003, are the largest and most severe on record. Never before in the history of this disease have so many countries been simultaneously affected, resulting in the loss of so many birds. Recent events make it likely that some migratory birds are now directly spreading the H5N1 virus in its highly pathogenic form. Further spread to new areas is expected.
Avian influenza viruses are highly species-specific, but have, on rare occasions including this current outbreak, crossed the species barrier to infect humans. Despite the death or destruction of more than 150 million birds, the virus, now considered endemic in many parts of South-east Asia, Korea, Indonesia and China, has spread most recently to Turkey and Romania. Control of the disease in poultry is expected to take several years.
The risk of pandemic influenza is serious. With the H5N1 virus now firmly entrenched in large parts of Asia, the risk that more human cases will occur will persist. Each additional human case gives the virus an opportunity to improve its transmissibility in humans, and thus develop into a pandemic strain.
Extracted/adapted from public information offered by the World Health Organization
Q. What is the difference between a foreign animal disease and an emerging pathogen?
A. The principal difference is that foreign animal diseases are
recognized disease agents, whereas emerging pathogens are new disease agents that have not previously been recognized
as such.
Q. Can humans contract foreign animal diseases?
A.Humans and animals share susceptibility to many microbial and viral pathogens. Many foreign animal
diseases are specific pathogens of animals and do not infect humans. Some notable exceptions are
highly pathogenic avian
influenza, bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE), Rift Valley Fever,
Nipah Virus, and West Nile Virus, that infect humans as well as animals.
Q. Where do emerging pathogens come from?
A. Emerging pathogens arise from viruses or microbes that infect one or more of the myriad of
animals in the environment. Usually they do not cause overt disease in their normal host. They make themselves known
when they cause disease in a new species of animal such as humans or their livestock. The process is one constantly
ongoing in nature. Viruses and microbial organisms are under strong pressures to optimize their genetic makeup to
survive in the environment in which they reside. A percentage of variant viral or microbial pathogens that are
introduced into new hosts are able to survive and reproduce. The forces of nature that select for survival will
reward those variants that are best suited to the host in which they find themselves. A certain few of these will
emerge as new pathogens in the human or animal host to which they have become adapted.
Location: http://epi.ufl.edu/animal/index.shtml