What does zoonotic mean?
Zoonotic is an adjective describing a disease, infection, pathogen, or process of transmission that can pass naturally from a nonhuman animal to a human. The term is especially important in medicine, veterinary science, epidemiology, and public health because diseases carried by wildlife or livestock can affect human populations. Examples include zoonotic influenza, rabies, and some forms of brucellosis. Its use signals that a health problem crosses the boundary between animal and human populations, rather than being confined to humans. The word can also refer more broadly to the pathogens and transmission processes involved. Because zoonotic usually means a disease that is naturally transmissible from animals to humans, it is distinct from an infectious disease that spreads only between people. The adjective is consequently more common in scientific, medical, and governmental contexts than in everyday speech, where people may simply speak of an animal-borne disease or a disease passed from animals to people.
adjectiveOf or relating to a disease or infection that can be naturally transmitted from nonhuman animals to humans. It is also used of pathogens, transmission, and public-health measures concerned with animal-to-human infection.
- Relating to a disease or infection naturally transmissible from nonhuman animals to humans.
"The researchers warned that the virus could become zoonotic and spread from infected animals to people."
"Health officials are monitoring the area after detecting a zoonotic infection in livestock."
"The study examines the genetic changes that may allow a newly discovered virus to become zoonotic."
Zoonotic is a public-health signal that the boundary between animal and human health may be porous: an infection carried by an animal can become a threat to people.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of zoonotic
Zoonotic was formed from zoonosis with the adjectival suffix -otic. Zoonosis combines the Greek zoion, meaning “animal,” with nosos, meaning “disease,” and the related English adjective zoonotic was established in scientific and medical usage during the 19th century. Its English cognates include zoology, zoological, and zoologist, all of which derive from the same Greek word for an animal.
Related word forms
How zoonotic is actually used
Chiefly formal and used in medicine, veterinary science, epidemiology, and public health. It usually appears before a noun such as “disease,” “infection,” or “pathogen,” and implies animal-to-human transmission rather than transmission occurring only among humans.
Easily confused with zoonotic
A zoonosis is a disease that can be naturally transmitted from an animal to a human, whereas zoonotic is the adjective describing such a disease, infection, pathogen, or mode of transmission.