Zoonoses: The “Public Health Time Bomb” That Primarily Affects Poor Countries

A journal highlights the massive human and economic cost of animal diseases transmissible to humans in low- and middle-income countries. In the shadow of COVID-19, another crisis is looming on the horizon. Rabies, leptospirosis, brucellosis, zoonotic tuberculosis, and leishmaniasis claim hundreds of millions of victims each year, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. *Animals and Zoonoses* makes a blunt assessment: zoonoses remain one of the foremost threats to the health and economy of low- and middle-income countries, yet they do not receive the attention or funding accorded to major, high-profile pandemics. The authors estimate that more than 200 zoonotic diseases affect humans, with up to 2.2 to 2.4 billion cases each year when endemic parasitic and bacterial infections are included. Between productivity losses, premature mortality, declines in animal production, food insecurity, and impacts on trade, the cost runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars. In economies where a large portion of the population depends directly on livestock, subsistence farming, or informal markets, every serious epizootic outbreak can trigger a cascade of bankruptcies, debt, and rural exodus. This situation is no accident. The authors describe a “cocktail” of structural factors: poverty, lack of access to healthcare, understaffed veterinary services, insufficient surveillance, a lack of laboratories capable of rapidly diagnosing zoonotic agents, and so on. Added to this are climate change, which alters the range of vectors; conflicts and population displacements; and growing antimicrobial resistance, which complicates the treatment of infections of animal origin. In light of this reality, the “One Health” concept—which links human health, animal health, and the environment—is often highlighted but rarely implemented on the ground. The journal advocates for a realistic “One Health” approach, tailored to the constraints of low- and middle-income countries: the goal is to strengthen basic veterinary services, develop community-based surveillance systems, prioritize zoonoses based on their actual impact (on humans, animals, and the economy), to fund simple and inexpensive diagnostic tests, and to invest in targeted vaccination campaigns—such as vaccinating dogs against rabies or livestock against certain hemorrhagic fevers. The authors also call for better use of genomics, modeling, and artificial intelligence to anticipate outbreaks, without overlooking a key point: stable funding. Today, funding flows in during times of crisis but enters a dry cycle once the alert subsides, leaving the most vulnerable countries to revert to a reactive rather than a preventive approach. Investing early in the prevention of zoonoses in low- and middle-income countries is infinitely less costly than suffering through the next pandemic. In a world where three-quarters of emerging infectious agents are of animal origin, global health security is first and foremost at stake where zoonoses strike hardest.