FOR KIDS: Infectious animals

Critters spread many germs that can sicken each other ? and even kill people

By Amanda Mascarelli

Web edition: April 18, 2013

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Jonathan Epstein studies how diseases are transferred between animals and people. This bat commonly carries Nipah virus. The germ killed hundreds of people and more than one million farm animals.

Credit: EcoHealth Alliance

When people talk about catching the flu, most consider ?classmates, family members or neighbors as likely sources. So it might be ?surprising to learn that the viruses we get a flu shot for each year originate ?in birds, not people. Birds can spread flu not only to other birds, but also to ?livestock and people (which then spread the virus among their own kind).

In fact, half of all germs known to cause human disease come from other animals. And nearly 75 percent of new, or emerging, infectious diseases in people were first spread by animals.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349756/title/FOR_KIDS_Infectious_animals

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