Why do pets never contract human diseases or illnesses?
ANIMAL
I once had pneumonia and was told it was very contagious and to quarantine myself. However, my dog stayed with me the whole time but never contracted the pneumonia.
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They can catch certain diseases, but not most. My guess is that the virus or bacterial has adapted itself to human biology, so it doesn’t work in dogs and cats. Certain things, like rabies will transfer of course.
I also had a cat that died of an infection that came from the mouth herpes type. The vet said someone with a cold sore probably kissed her when she was a kitten, and when she got old her immunity was low enough to let this virus take over.
May be animals have better immunity than humans, that’s why.
actually, they can catch bacterial diseases… it’s the viral ones they can’t catch… must’ve been a viral infection that you had.
i guess its part of their chemical makeup
They do…There is feline aids and west nile
Maybe dogs can’t get pneumonia from you. But lots of animals can get some diseases from humans, and vice versa.
It is actually called a “species barrier”…
Some bacteria & viruses can infect multiple species
but many cannot…
different DNA has different effects
Certain types of infections particularly viral infections have evolved to be host specific, this means that they cannot simply jump from one organism to another.
Certain generalist organisms, like salmonella, and even some types of viruses like the common cold can be transmitted to animals. Ferrets are known to be susceptible to many human ailments.
A lot of good answers.
I’m just going to explain a bit…
First, pets DO contract human diseases and illnesses but the severity and symptoms are different.
But it’s important to understand how bacteria and viruses work. Bacteria and viruses use different methods to infect their hosts. And different pets and humans have different means of dealing with different microbial invaders.
Bacterial and viral invaders use different combinations of chemicals to attack a host body… some of these chemicals are very specific to protein markers in different animals. human cells possess different proteins in it than cat cells for instance.
Lets take viruses for example: A virus invades a cell by producing a protein that allows it to adhere to protein on a cell. Once the virus has ‘stuck’ to a cell, it can then produce another chemical that allows it to penetrate the cell membrane and implant it’s RNA into the host cell and infect it.
Human cells and cat cells have different proteins on the surface so many viruses are species specific which as someone already mentioned, this creates a species barrier.
This is the reason why the dreaded Avian bird flu isn’t a human epidemic/pandemic yet.
Additionally, cat and human immune systems are different and are specialized at being able to take care of different types of bacterial and viral threats.