Diseases that People get from animals

Diseases that come from milk

Some diseases that people get, such as brucellosis and tuberculosis come from microbes that come out in an animal's milk. Microbes also get into milk from the air, the hands of a milkier, an animal's skin or from dirt in the place where animals are milked. Microbes breed very fast in warm milk.

How to treat milk to stop diseases

• Heat milk and keep it very nearly boiling for twenty minutes then let it cool before drinking it.

• Do not drink milk from sick animals.

• Keep the place where animals are milked clean.

Keep the milk clean. Only put milk into clean containers. Wash milk containers clean and put them upside down so the water comes out and they dry. Some herders clean milk containers by smoking them over a fire. Smoke kills some microbes.

• Cover a milk container after you have filled it.

If you can cool milk down (preferably to below 4°C) as soon as possible after milking, it will keep for longer.

Tapeworms that people get from animals

People can become sick when they get tapeworms from animals. Animals do not usually become sick even when they have tapeworms. There are many kinds of tapeworms and they cause different problems.

The two most common are hydatid disease and taenia.

Hydatid disease

 People become sick with hydatid disease when they have a hydatid cyst somewhere in their body. This is the cyst of an adult tapeworm that lives in dogs. Sometimes this tapeworm cyst is large, it can be bigger than a man's head. These cysts can be in any part of the body, even in the brain. They are usually in the lungs or liver. People with hydatid cysts inside them can become sick and even die. Animals occasionally have hydatid cysts. They may become weak but they do not usually become sick or die. People and animals get hydatid disease when they eat food contaminated with tapeworm eggs from dogs' faeces. They also get tapeworm eggs from wet soil around water holes. The adult tapeworms [Echinococcus] are about 1 cm long. They live in a dog's intestines. They produce eggs that come out in the dog's faeces after about two months. Dogs get infected with young tapeworms by eating uncooked flesh with hydatid cysts in it. These cysts can live in dead flesh for about two months. There is no effective treatment for tapeworm cysts. Sometimes surgeons can operate on people to cut hydatid cysts out.

Taenia

 People get one common tapeworm [Taenia solium] from cysts in cattle, another [Taenia saginata] from cysts in pigs. People get tapeworms when they eat uncooked meat with these tapeworm cysts in it. Always remove anything that could be a tapeworm cyst from meat. Cook meat properly. People with tapeworms produce tapeworm eggs in their faeces. These eggs can infect animals