Zoonotic diseases are infectious diseases that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans, encompassing a wide range of etiologic agents including viruses, bacteria, parasites, and fungi. They arise through direct contact, vectors, ingestion of contaminated food or water, or inhalation of infectious aerosols, and often involve complex reservoir and amplifier host dynamics. Zoonoses are central to One Health research, which integrates human, animal, and environmental health to study spillover mechanisms, host-pathogen interactions, ecological drivers, and evolutionary processes that enable cross-species transmission, adaptation, and, in some cases, sustained human-to-human spread.
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