Zoonotic diseases posing occupational risk to veterinary personnel during clinical management of dogs and cats: A narrative review

Background Veterinary professionals are among the occupational groups most exposed to zoonotic infections, and the exposure mainly occurs during the everyday clinical treatment of common household pets. Dogs and cats carry a wide and taxonomically varied range of zoonotic pathogens. These are able to infect people in several ways: through bites and scratches, via contact with urine or faeces, by inhaling aerosols, through direct contact on the skin, and also by arthropods what patients carry into the clinic. Objectives This review focuses on the different zoonoses types that dogs and cats are able to transmit to veterinary personnel. Hereby, we describe the cause, the route of infection at work, the clinical presentation in humans, and the available approaches for the diagnosis, treatment as well as for the prevention. Results More than twenty zoonoses of occupational relevance were identified, falling into four groups: bacterial, viral, fungal, and parasitic (protozoan, helminth, and ectoparasitic). The most serious ones are rabies, Q fever, cat-scratch disease, leptospirosis, pasteurellosis, dermatophytosis, toxoplasmosis, and sporotrichosis. Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear unless post-exposure prophylaxis is given. Q fever and capnocytophagosis can also become life-threatening in particular host contexts. Conclusions The occupational risk in small animal practice is substantial, and it rarely comes down to a single pathogen. Four measures matter most: pre-exposure vaccination where it exists (rabies, and Q fever in endemic regions), consistent use of personal protective equipment (PPE), careful bite-wound management, and specific precautions for individuals at higher risk, particularly those who are pregnant or immunocompromised.