Wildlife Diseases and Humans

Diseases of wildlife can cause significant illness and death to individual animals and can significantly affect wildlife populations. Wildlife species can also serve as natural hosts for certain diseases that affect humans (zoonoses). The disease agents or parasites that cause these zoonotic diseases can be contracted from wildlife directly by bites or contamination, or indirectly through the bite of arthropod vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and mites that have previously fed on an infected animal. These zoonotic diseases are primarily diseases acquired within a specific locality, and secondarily, diseases of occupation and avocation. Biologists, field assistants, hunters, and other individuals who work directly with wildlife have an increased risk of acquiring these diseases directly from animal hosts or their ectoparasites. Plague, tularemia, and leptospirosis have been acquired in the handling and skinning of rodents, rabbits, and carnivores. Humans have usually acquired diseases like Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and Lyme disease because they have spent time in optimal habitats of disease vectors and hosts. Therefore, some general precautions should be taken to reduce risks of exposure and prevent infection.