Summary
The article examines nine zoonotic disease outbreaks in the past two centuries. Diseases from all over the world are covered and most are spread from contact with the animal (e.g., birds and pigs) or consumption of products from an infected animal (e.g. milk and beef). In many cases, hundreds or thousands of people have contracted the disease and millions of animals have been killed to prevent transmission. To put the outbreaks into perspective, the H7N7 – bird flu in the Netherlands may have infected nearly 2,000 people and 30 million birds from 250 farms had to be killed, The article examines how the common belief is that diseases are primarily transmitted from wildlife; however, farmed animals have played a significant role in the spread and transmission of disease involved in significant historical zoontice events.