Table 1. Natural reservoir hosts and susceptible hosts involved in transmission of a selection of emerging zoonotic viral diseases*.
| Disease (virus) | Known reservoir hosts | Other susceptible hosts | Transmission host to humans | Refs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avian influenza (H5N1, H7N9, H7N7, H9N2, H3N2 and others) | Waterfowl and wild birds | Bats, cats, dogs, ferrets, pigs, poultry (chickens, ducks and turkeys) and marine mammals | Chickens | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡, Zoonoses§, Animal Disease Information Summaries|| and Refs 69,70,71 |
| 'Swine flu' strains (H1N1 and H3N2) | Pigs | Ferrets, foxes, cats, dogs, poultry (chickens, ducks and turkeys) and marine mammals | Pigs | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡, Zoonoses§, Animal Disease Information Summaries|| and Refs 69,70,71 |
| SARS (SARS coronavirus) | Bats | Civet cats | Civet cats | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Ref. 72 |
| Dengue fever (dengue virus) | Primates | Unknown | Mosquitoes | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Ref. 73 |
| Hendra (Hendra virus) | Bats | Horses and ferrets | Horses | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Ref. 74 |
| Rabies (rabies virus and other lyssaviruses) | Bats | Cats, cattle, coyotes, dogs, foxes, horses, mongooses, primates, raccoons, sheep, skunks and wolves | Bats and dogs | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡, Animal Disease Information Summaries|| and Refs 75,76 |
| Ebola viral haemorrhagic fever (Ebola virus) | Bats | Primates | Primates and bats | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Zoonoses§ |
| Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever (Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever virus) | Rodents, hares, hedgehogs and ostriches | Cattle, goats, horses, pigs and sheep | Ticks | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Zoonoses§ |
| Ross River fever (Ross River virus) | Kangaroos and wallabies | Bats, birds, cats, dogs, horses and possums | Mosquitoes | Refs 73,77,78 |
| Japanese encephalitis (Japanese encephalitis virus) | Pigs and wild birds | Horses | Mosquitoes | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ‡ |
| West Nile virus encephalitis (West Nile virus) | Domestic and wild birds | Bats, camels, horses, marine mammals, reptiles and >30 vertebrate species | Mosquitoes and birds | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention‡ and Animal Disease Information Summaries|| |
SARS, severe acute respiratory syndrome.
*Supplementary information S1 (table) lists numerous other zoonotic diseases, including bacterial, prion, parasitic and other viral diseases.
‡See the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
§See Zoonoses on the World Health Organization website.
||See Animal Disease Information Summaries on the World Organisation for Animal Health website.