Dogs, Zoonoses and Public Health (2nd Edition)

Abstract

Since the first edition of this text was published in 2000, a number of important advances have been made in the fields of genetics, molecular biology and epidemiology, speciation, and immunology that have provided new insights into our understanding of the zoonotic infec- tions humans share with dogs. The scope of the book has been expanded to include three new chapters, and all previous chapters have been updated and in some instances rewritten. This 2nd edition provides an even more comprehensive account of the changing world and our culturally and individually diverse relationships with ‘man’s best friend’, the domestic dog. The size of the world dog population is unknown but is positively correlated to that of the human population. Based on a number of observations it could be as high as one-tenth of the world human population, with 700 million dogs. A majority of those dogs, particularly in parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, are or are regarded as strays. People’s attitudes regarding dogs vary greatly from being only beneficial to humans to being a serious public health nuisance. As dogs are present and closely associated with humans and/or their activities in almost all places, most people will have a strong stand regarding their role and impact on human society.