Definition of Zoonotic

Zoonotic: Pertaining to a zoonosis: a disease that can be transmitted from animals to people or, more specifically, a disease that normally exists in animals but that can infect humans. There are multitudes of zoonotic diseases.

Some examples include: anthrax ascariasis brucellosis plague echinococcosis Lassa fever listeriosis Lyme disease monkeypox psittacosis rabies salmonellosis trichinosis toxoplasmosis typhus and West Nile fever

Zoonoses may appear suddenly and be relatively virulent, as illustrated by HIV which ignited the AIDS epidemic and the coronavirus responsible for the outbreak of SARS.