Chapters authored
Welfare of Pet Birds and Potential Zoonoses
The human-animal interaction had long been established and currently emerged in multiple aspects including housing of animals for food and as pets. The “pet birds” are the wild or exotic birds having high genetic value and are housed under captivity as companions or for ornamental purposes. The commonly housed pet birds are either passeriformes or psittaciformes. These birds are housed under conditions to meet standard requirements for welfare of pet birds. Besides the pet birds and human relationship, these birds are potential carriers or transmitters of several pathogens considered responsible for zoonotic diseases. The range of the zoonotic diseases consisted of bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal diseases. The mode of transmission is also an important entity for understanding the spread mechanism of zoonotic diseases. The transmission and spread is predominantly through the direct contact and in the few conditions through the vectors; termed as vector-borne transmission. Altogether, in this chapter, the authors have discussed different aspects of welfare of pet birds, categories of zoonotic diseases along with mode of transmission and spread of zoonoses. At the last, few aspects of welfare of pet birds and prevention and control guidelines of zoonoses are suggested for the personal biosafety and public health.
Part of the book: Animal Welfare
Dengue Fever: A General Perspective
Dengue Fever or commonly known as Dengue, a mosquito-borne arboviral infection has emerged as havoc around the globe. Annually, about 50 million infections are reported, resulting in 22,000 deaths and almost 2.5 billion people are reported living at risk. Dengue infection is caused by Dengue Virus (DENV), which is a member of genus Flavivirus and comprised of ten proteins; three proteins, capsid (C), membrane (M), and envelope (E), play structural role and seven are identified as non-structural that direct DENV replication. Four distinct serotypes: DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4 are transmitted via Aedes mosquitoes. Clinically, Dengue patients can be categorized into three groups according to WHO 2009 revised classification. Typical symptoms of dengue include: extreme fatigue; sudden fever (from 3-7 days), headache, joint, muscle, and back pain; vomiting and diarrhea, appetite loss; skin rash along minor bleeding. Aedes aegypti is geographically distributed in tropical areas and breeds in artificially filled water containers i.e. drums, tyres, flower vases plastic food containers, tin cans, etc. Due to four viral serotypes and non-availability of the model animal for dengue, producing vaccines is a challenging task. Thus, Dengue can be managed using various vector control strategies through physical, chemical and biological means.
Part of the book: Dengue Fever