Question: could you really mate with animals and get diseases from them?

Asked by impsrule to Cindy, Katelin, Kate, Miranda, Yagiz on 16 Mar 2013.

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  1. Photo: Miranda WeenMiranda Ween
    answered on 16 Mar 2013:

    In theory, yes. But humans are not meant to mate with animals.

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Comments

  1. Photo: HannahHannah
    commented on 19 Mar 2013:

    Miranda is right. Humans are not meant to mate with animals.

    But it is true that it’s possible for animals to give diseases to humans and for humans to give diseases to animals.

    You might have heard of ring worms? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dermatophytosis) They are a fungus that is transmitted to humans from cats. Or have you hear of rabies (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002310/) which can be spread from dogs to humans?

    When a virus jumps between animals and humans, it’s called “cross- species host switching”. It’s believed that SARS, hantaviruses, Ebola and Marburg viruses, Nipah virus, Hendra virus, and human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV-2 all began as enzootic viruses (viruses that affect animals) that cross-species host switched to infect humans.

    And… animals can also be infected with human viruses. In fact, ferrets are susceptible to many strains of influenza (the flu) virus, and develop symptoms similar to those in humans, so laboratories studying the flu often use ferrets as a model. The guinea pig has also been described as an alternative animal model for studying influenza virus transmission.

    Does that answer your question?

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