The Cat Clinic of Roswell’s Dr. Michael Ray contributed to the 2019 AAFP Feline Zoonoses Guidelines in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery.
Zoonotic diseases are defined as being common to, shared by, or naturally transmitted between humans and other vertebrate animals. There are multiple agents that can infect cats and their owners. Humans are infected with zoonotic agents from direct contact with infected cats, contact via contaminated food or water, from shared vectors and from the shared environment.