ZOONOSES AND PARASITES IN

COMMUNITIES

-Ecology of Human Diseases-

Kenneth L. Frias
MS Microbiology
UPHSL
ZOONOSIS
• Zoonosis is derived from the Greek words:
Zoon- Animal
Noson – Disease
• Disease or infection which are naturally
transmitted between vertebrate animals and
humans
• Zoonosis was coined and first used by Rudolf
Virchow
Emerging zoonosis
- a zoonosis that is newly recognized or newly
evolved, or that has occurred previously but
shows an increase in incidence or expansion in
geographical, host or vector range
Examples of Emerging Infectious Diseases:
• Hantavirus

• Avian influenza (type A)

• Nipah virus

• Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (prions)

• COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
Factors Influencing Emergence of Zoonotic Disease:
• Etiological changes in environment and
agricultural operations – ex. leptospirosis, plague
• Increased movement or travelling of man - ex.
amoebiasis, salmonellosis, COVID-19
• Handling animal byproducts and waste - ex.
anthrax, chlamydiosis, dermatophytosis
• Increase in density of animal population - ex.
dermatophytosis, tuberculosis etc.
Factors Influencing Emergence of Zoonotic Disease:
• Increased trade of animal products - ex. anthrax,
brucellosis, salmonellosis, Hantavirus, Bird flu
• Drug resistant organisms - ex. E. coli, S. aureus
• Changing livestock farming practices – ex.
Salmonellosis, Listeriosis
• Changing environmental conditions including
climate and disaster - ex. plague, leptospirosis
• Pathogen changes like genetic shift and drift - ex.
influenza, E. coli, Staphylococcus
Classification of Zoonoses:
• Etiological Agent
• Mode of Transmission
• Reservoir Host
Classification of Zoonoses:
According to Etiological Agents:
• Bacterial zoonoses - anthrax, brucellosis, plague, leptospirosis,
salmonellosis, lyme disease
• Viral zoonoses - rabies, arbovirus, yellow fever, influenza
• Rickettsial zoonoses - murine typhus, tick typhus, scrub typhus,
Q-fever
• Protozoal zoonoses - toxoplasmosis, trypanosomiasis,
leishmaniasis
• Helminthic zoonoses - echinococcosis, taeniasis, schistosomiasis
• Fungal zoonoses - deep mycosis, histoplasmosis, cryptococcosis,
superficial dermatophytes.
• Ectoparasites - scabies, myiasis
Classification of Zoonoses:
According to Mode of Transmission
• Direct zoonosis- from an infected vertebrate
host to a susceptible human host by direct
contact, or thru fomite - rabies, anthrax,
brucellosis, leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis.
• Cyclozoonosis - requires more than one
vertebrate host species, but no invertebrate
host for the completion of life cycle of agent -
echinococcosis, taeniasis.
Classification of Zoonoses:
According to Mode of Transmission
• Metazoonosis - transmitted biologically by invertebrate
vectors, in which the agent multiplies and/or develops
and there is always an extrinsic incubation period
before transmission to another vertebrate host - plague,
arbovirus infections, schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis.
• Saprozoonosis - requires a vertebrate host and a non-
animal developmental site like soil, plant material,
pigeon dropping etc. for the development of the
infectious agent - aspergillosis, coccidioidomycosis,
cryptococosis, histoplasmosis, zygomycosis
Classification of Zoonoses:
According to Reservoir Host
• Anthropozoonoses - infections transmitted to man
from lower vertebrate animals – ex. rabies,
leptospirosis, plague, arboviral infection, brucellosis
• Zooanthroponoses - infections transmitted from man
to lower vertebrate animals – ex. streptococci,
staphylococci, diphtheria, enterobacteriaceae, human
tuberculosis in cattle and parrots.
• Amphixenoses - infections maintained in both man
and lower vertebrate animals and transmitted in
either direction – ex. salmonellosis, staphylococcosis
Parasite Pattern and Process of
Distribution

- Augustus De Morgan (Siphonaptera)

Microparasite and Macroparasite
Comparison
Microparasites:
• bacteria, protozoans, fungi, viruses, prions
Macroparasites:
• parasitic worms

• fleas, ticks, lice

Host-Macroparasite Life Cycle
 Macroparasite invasion and persistence
depend on:
• rate of production of eggs or larval stages
• rate at which parasites are consumed by hosts
• survival of free-living infective stages
• reproduction number
Reproduction Number
 Reproduction number is the measure of
infectiousness of a disease. There are several
techniques used on how to compute for
reproduction number:
• getting the average of secondary infections
per sources of infections (contact tracing)
• establishing SIR model
• establishing formula from other parameters
• For Microparasites, R0 must exceed 1.0 for the
infection to spread.
R0 = new infection/existing infection
Using Function and Derivative to Determine R0
• Function shows how many individuals (y) will be infected in a
specific time (x)
• Derivative quantifies the rate of change of function (slope)
Example of Function and Derivative
• A disease is able to infect 1, 4, and 9 individuals (y) for 3 days
• Over time (x), infection shows quadratic growth (squared).
• The function is x^2
• Based on function x^2: day 4=16, day 5=25, day 6=36…
• The derivative (slope) is 2x (based on power rule in calculus)
Establishing R0 using SIR Model
• Collection of data (susceptible, infective, removed)
• Data will be plotted on a graph
• Functions and their derivatives will be determined
• Ordinary Differential Equations will be applied
Macroparasite R0 Model:

• β - rate of parasite consumption by hosts

• λ – rate of egg or larva production
• H – Host population
• μ – survival of free-living infective stage
• b – death rate
• α - birth rate
• γ – death rate of free-living egg/larva
• The basic reproductive ratio (R0) of
macroparasite is the product of the average
number of new infections produced by a
single adult parasite and the average life
expectancy of adult and larval stages.

• R0 also refers to the number of parasites

produced by an adult parasite over its life
span.
 Control of Macroparasites
through Anthelmintic Application
Helminth parasite control in endemic settings:
• preventive chemotherapy delivered through
mass drug administration
• targeting at-risk groups (e.g. school-aged
children) or entire populations
According to WHO, preventive chemotherapy
programs include distribution of :
• albendazole or mebendazole against soil-
transmitted helminths (STHs)
• praziquantel against schistosomes
• ivermectin or diethylcarbamazine in
combination with albendazole against
lymphatic filariae
• The integration of various control programs to
make them more cost-effective results in
increasing co-administration of multiple drugs.

• For example, albendazole is now commonly

distributed along with other drugs in the
frame of lymphatic filariasis and
schistosomiasis control programs.
• Other drug combinations are also common
• The concurrent distribution of several drugs
has been shown to be generally safe, and
hence no or only low levels of adverse events
have been observed, even in areas with
extensive multiparasitism
Effect of Biodiversity on Parasites
• Biodiversity is the variation of species in an
ecosystem.
• “Dilution Effect” is a theory suggesting that
higher diversity can lead to lower infection
rate in hosts.
• For directly transmitted pathogens, non-host
species may “dilute” infection directly and
indirectly
• Competitors and predators may
(1) alter host behavior to reduce pathogen
transmission
(2) reduce host density.
Role of Parasites in Ecosystem
Functioning
Parasitism Role on Trophic Interactions
• Parasites may alter host behavior, which can
increase predation risk.
• Predation can be used as mode of
transmission to new host.
• This affects the balance in food chain/web.
Parasitism Role on Trophic Interactions
• Parasites receive shares in energy transfer and
total biomass in an ecosystem.
Parasitism on Competition and Biodiversity
• Parasites can influence biodiversity when they
alter the outcome of competition between
host species, a phenomenon termed parasite-
mediated competition
• The prominent roles of parasites in food webs,
competitive interactions, biodiversity patterns,
and the regulation of keystone species, make
it clear that parasites contribute to structuring
ecological communities
Thank you very much.