Zoonotic Disease Cases

Disease Statistics

Human Case Data (Zoonotic Disease Data)

What are Zoonoses Diseases?

Zoonoses are diseases that transmit from an animal to a human. The most common example is when a human contracts rabies from a dog bite.

*The purpose of surveillance is to try to detect where disease organisms, such as bacteria and viruses, occur in Texas. Rabies surveillance for example is basically an observation or watch for the virus that causes rabies. When an animal is exhibiting the signs of rabies, the brain may be submitted to an approved laboratory for testing. Animals that have bitten or otherwise may have exposed a person or a domestic animal to the virus should also be tested. If an animal is positive, it means that the virus was found during testing. If an animal is negative, it means that the virus was not found during testing. Similar surveillance is conducted on samples from animals for a variety of diseases. The amount of testing in the surveillance process will vary for different counties statewide. If a report indicates that an area does not have any positive test results for a particular disease, it does not necessarily mean that the disease organisms are not in that area. It just reflects the fact that either there were no samples submitted from that area or that submitted samples were negative.