Zoonotic diseases can be transmitted from animals to humans and their widespread presence must be controlled, otherwise, public health can undergo serious and usually severe consequences, such as that the world faced by COVID-19. That’s why some considerations must be taken to at least prevent the prevalence of such diseases. One of the most important factors in the emergence and spreading of these diseases is migration because people during migration could carry diseases from country to country, especially if some reasons like war make this migratory wave enormous. For example, the conflict in Ukraine has created a huge movement of people and animals across the borders and subsequently, the overcrowding of refugee camps increased the risk of disease transmission. The war in Ukraine has disrupted animal health surveillance and control, resulting in delayed detection and control of zoonotic diseases. The uncontrolled movement of animals, and their undisposed carcasses as well as the destruction of wildlife habitats and displacement of domestic and wild animals increase the spillover of pathogens at human, wildlife and domestic animal interfaces. The most common zoonotic diseases reported in Ukraine are:
- Foodborne and waterborne zoonotic diseases; shigellosis, campylobacteriosis, salmonellosis and Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) [1]
- Vector-borne zoonotic diseases; West Nile fever, Crimean Congo Haemorrhagic Fever [1].
- Zoonotic diseases transmitted by domestic animals, rodents and pets; leptospirosis [1, 2], anthrax [3], brucellosis, rabies [1, 4].
The authority of Ukraine should establish a multi-disciplinary panel of national and international experts to stabilize and strengthen risk-based surveillance for the detection of specific diseases in animal populations. Implementation of vaccination of pet animals and livestock in high-risk areas, risk communication campaign to generic population, farmers, veterinarians, foresters and other targeted audiences on the risk of emergence and spread of transboundary diseases including zoonosis. Nevertheless, these measures could be possibly profitable, if the international community supports these efforts to prevent the spread of zoonotic diseases in Eastern Europe. In other respects, serious consequences of any failure could threaten public health, not only in the region but also globally.
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The authors declare no conflict of interest.