Zoonoses in Britain

DEFINITION THIS PAPER is primarily concerned with human infections that can be acquired from mammals and birds in the British Isles. If a disease is transmissible from animals to man there must be the possibility of the same infection being acquired by animals from man. The latter seems to be a rare occurance in this country except for those animal infections that can be acquired from human sewage. When investigating outbreaks of disease in man and the animals to which he has been exposed the further possibility of infection of both man and the animals from a common third source should be considered. Diarrhoea due to salmonellosis in a household and their pet dog is an example. If the dog is fed on scraps from the human’s food it is possible that both human and canine infections have been ) acquired from, say, the same chicken that they have eaten.