There are nearly more than 50 infectious diseases in animals. Agents certain viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoans, worms, and arthropods capable of producing disease are pathogens. The term pathogenicity refers to the ability of a parasite to enter a host and produce disease; the degree of pathogenicity that is the ability of an organism to cause infection is known as virulence. The capacity of a virulent organism to cause infection is influenced both by the characteristics of the organism and by the ability of the host to repel the invasion and to prevent injury. A pathogen may be virulent for one host but not for another. Pneumococcal bacteria have a low virulence for mice and are not found in them in nature; if introduced experimentally into a mouse, however, the bacteria overwhelm its body defenses and cause death. This session discusses more about infectious diseases in animals.
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