Animal disease and public health |
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| Authors: | J.A.R. Miles M.A. M.D. F.R.A.C.P. |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Microbiology , University of Otago , Dunedin |
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| Abstract: | Extract It has been recognized for many centuries that human and animal health are closely related. One of the earliest examples of such recognition which is easily available is from the book of Judges in the Old Testament, where it is reported that the Philistines, after capturing the Ark of the Covenant in a battle with the Israelites, suffered a plague associated with large numbers of rodents and with “emerods”, which we might well believe to be bubos. It seems reasonable to explain this severe epidemic, which apparently killed 50,000 Bethsemites apart from other people, as an example of bubonic plague. Several of the other early accounts of epidemics in which there was an association of large numbers of rats with the occurrence of the disease would appear to be accounts of bubonic plague. |
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