Infectious diseases that come from an animal source or reservoir are called zoonotic diseases. People can catch bacterial, parasitic and viral microbial infections from animals. We know most about the microbes that cause diseases in people, but a lot less about the microbes that live in the animals we come into contact with. This is why emerging infectious diseases are often zoonotic.

Here are a few examples of zoonotic diseases and which microbes they are caused by. These illustrations were made for the Zoonotic Detectives activity at the Edinburgh International Science Festival and made great little colouring sheets for Glasgow Science Festival too…