To the Editor: We thank Drs. Nowotny and Deutz for their Letter to the Editor regarding our letter in the January-February issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases. We agree that increased education and research efforts regarding zoonoses would benefit not only at-risk patients, but also veterinary and human health professionals. We also applaud their efforts to provide serologic evidence of exposure to zoonotic pathogens among veterinarians in Austria. However, readers should be aware of the zoonotic potential of two of the pathogens in their screening. Specifically, although both animals and humans suffer from respiratory syncytial virus infections, evidence is minimal for interspecies transmission of the domestic animal and human strains. Similarly, bovine viral diarrhea virus is an important bovine pathogen, but there is little evidence for its ability to infect humans.

Christopher W. Olsen* and Leslie L. Barton†
*University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; and †University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, Tucson, Arizona, USA

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This page last reviewed March 8, 2000

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