Adequate measures can be taken to prevent zoonotic diseases that are broadspread or even worldwide, but can also be taken locally, for example in your own house or on your own farm. The level at which prevention is possible is shown in Table 1. This chapter provides some practical advice for each level and ends with advice for the particular risk groups mentioned in Section earlier.

The main objective of prevention of zoonoses is to:

1 Prevent animals from becoming infected: if they are not infected, they can produce better, they cannot infect other animals and they cannot infect people.

2 Prevent humans from becoming infected: if they are not infected, they will not get ill and they will not infect animals or other humans.

Some preventive measures will prevent animals from becoming infected, while others will prevent humans from becoming infected. Other preventive measurements protect both humans and animals. Here, we will only focus on animal level and farm/community level.

To prevent animals from becoming infected the first thing one should know is that diseases are contracted and spread:

Owners should ensure that healthy animals are not in close contact with sick animals. It is important to keep separate towels, blankets, saddles, feed bowls and other equipment for the healthy and the sick animals. Ringworm, for example, is a skin disease that spreads very easily when the saddle or rope that was used for an infected animal is also used for a healthy animal.

Another measure to prevent animals from becoming infected is to use mosquito repellents in the stables.

Making use of artificial insemination can prevent diseases that spread through mating. Artificial insemination stations are likely to check the sperm of the male animal for diseases before they give it to a female animal. For instance, if the sperm is infected with the zoonosis brucellosis, it will not be used.

There is a category of animals that makes prevention difficult: carrier animals. Carrier animals are animals that are not yet ill, or they may never get ill, because their immune system is able to keep the infection low. They look healthy although they are infected with microbes or parasites, which they could transmit to other animals.

Some practical advice to prevent infection of the animals:

The first step in prevention of zoonoses is to prevent animals from becoming infected. But sometimes it still happens that a zoonosis infects animals. You then will have to prevent spread of the microbe from animals to humans. How you can prevent each of the discussed zoonosis from infecting people is explained in the text boxes in this book.

But there is a slight problem? Most zoonoses cause no clear symptoms in animals. Often you will only see symptoms that look very much like the symptoms of another disease, such as influenza. Or the animal "is just not itself". It is a bit slower, does not grow very well, and may seem to be a bit weaker. In this case it may be another disease and not a zoonosis, but it may also be indeed a zoonosis! So it is important to be careful when an animal gets sick. Be aware that it can be a zoonosis.

The ability to prevent infection from animals to humans depends very much on cultural habits and knowledge. But in general it can be said that hygiene plays an important role in prevention. Hygiene is everything that keeps you healthy. Good hygiene practice in your home applies to:

In countries where there is clean water, personal hygiene can be achieved by: washing your hands after you have been to the toilet; keeping the toilet covered and clean; washing your hands before you eat; and washing vegetables and fruits before eating them. All this will help prevent many diseases.

Control of insects means cleaning food scraps that may attract flies and using insect repellents and mosquito netting. Personal protection against flies and mosquitoes includes wearing clothing with fulllength trousers and long sleeves.

In countries where clean water is unusual and where the sanitary standards are lower, the following can still be done:

The hygienic measures above reduce the risk of infections in general, not only the risk of zoonotic infections. With regard to animals, the following additional measures should be taken:

Extra care should be taken of risk groups: young children, old people, pregnant women and people who are already sick or weakened. This means that these risk groups should in no case eat meat or eggs that are not properly cooked; they should not drink water or milk that is not boiled; and they should not eat cheese made from raw milk.

If you work with animals or animal products, here are some extra measures that should be taken:

Please be aware that none of these measures guarantee that you will never get ill any more! But they will reduce the chances of getting infected with an infectious disease.