There are heaps which are specific to animals. There is a cat version of HIV called FIV, which humans can carry and infect other cats with but not get sick from. there’s also the cat flu.
There is a disease called scrapie which affects only sheep and goats. There is also mange which mostly affects dogs.
it’s important to note that humans and animals have very different immune systems, and so infections have developed specifically to evade them, but our immune system kills them very quickly if we are exposed to it. There will also be different genetic diseases which only affect animals.
Diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans are called zoonoses. But there are some diseases can also be spread from humans to animals and these are often termed “reverse” zoonoses. To give a few example, diseases like mumps, hepatitis, rabies, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, ebola, malaria, etc.. can be transmitted to animals from humans.
There are also diseases which is specific to certain animals however if the infection is caused by microorganism, it doesn’t take much for bacteria to evolve in a way to infect other animals and humans.
Did you know there are also infectious diseases which make plants sick but not people? One is called the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). It effects tomato plants and gives the leaves a mosaic look. It was actually experiments done on this virus which gave us an understanding on what a virus actually was.
As Miranda said we have differences in our immune systems as to why some diseases affect only animals, others humans and others plants. But because viruses mutate fairly quickly, animal viruses can mutate to allow them to infect humans, such as what happened with swine and bird flu.
There are heaps which are specific to animals. There is a cat version of HIV called FIV, which humans can carry and infect other cats with but not get sick from. there’s also the cat flu.
There is a disease called scrapie which affects only sheep and goats. There is also mange which mostly affects dogs.
it’s important to note that humans and animals have very different immune systems, and so infections have developed specifically to evade them, but our immune system kills them very quickly if we are exposed to it. There will also be different genetic diseases which only affect animals.
1
Diseases that are transmissible from animals to humans are called zoonoses. But there are some diseases can also be spread from humans to animals and these are often termed “reverse” zoonoses. To give a few example, diseases like mumps, hepatitis, rabies, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, anthrax, ebola, malaria, etc.. can be transmitted to animals from humans.
There are also diseases which is specific to certain animals however if the infection is caused by microorganism, it doesn’t take much for bacteria to evolve in a way to infect other animals and humans.
1
Did you know there are also infectious diseases which make plants sick but not people? One is called the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV). It effects tomato plants and gives the leaves a mosaic look. It was actually experiments done on this virus which gave us an understanding on what a virus actually was.
As Miranda said we have differences in our immune systems as to why some diseases affect only animals, others humans and others plants. But because viruses mutate fairly quickly, animal viruses can mutate to allow them to infect humans, such as what happened with swine and bird flu.
1