Zoonosis

noun (countable; plural zoonoses)

/zuːˈɒnəsɪs/ (plural: zoonoses)

An infectious disease that has jumped from a non-human animal to humans — approximately 75% of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, including COVID-19, Ebola, Nipah, rabies, and avian influenza; the increasing frequency of zoonotic spillovers is driven by deforestation, wildlife trade, intensive animal agriculture, and climate change.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

As India deepens its commitment to the One Health framework, the governance challenge is to pre-empt the next zoonosis at the animal-human-environment interface, since over sixty per cent of emerging infectious diseases — from the Nipah outbreaks in Kerala to COVID-19 — originate in animal reservoirs.

Synonyms

zoonotic diseaseanimal-borne infectionzoonotic infectioncross-species infectionspillover disease

Antonyms

anthroponosisnon-communicable disease

🌱 Word Family

zoonoses (n pl), zoonotic (adj), zoonotically (adv), zoonosis (n)

🔡 Root

Greek zōon = animal + nosos = disease; coined by Rudolf Virchow in the 19th century

📜 Etymology

From Greek zōon ("animal") + nosos ("disease"); coined by Rudolf Virchow in the 19th century.

🧠 Memory Hook

"ZOO + NOSOS" — a disease (Greek nosos) that leaps from the ZOO (Greek zoon, animal) to you: animals passing illness to humans.

⚠️ Disaster Management 📖 Seen in: Pandemic Preparedness & Biological Dis...

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