Bacterial and Viral Zoonotic Diseases of Yak

Abstract

The yak, Bos grunniens or Bos mutus, is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of South Central Asia, the Tibetan plateau, Nepal, India and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. There is little differentiation between a Yak and the Highland Cattle. As yak and cattle belonging to same family and share the same habitat, especially during the winter season, many of the cattle diseases were witnessed in yaks. Different bacterial, viral, mycotic and parasitic zoonotic diseases have been encountered in yaks. Different bacterial diseases like anthrax, botulism, brucellosis, calf scours, leptospirosis, mastitis, pasteurellosis, salmonellosis, tetanus and tubercu­losis have been reported by different workers are described in this paper. Similarly, information on some of the important viral diseases such as vesicular stomatitis, viral diarrhoea/mucosal disease, rinderpest, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis and foot and mouth disease was provided in this article.