Patterns of Zoonotic Disease

This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study on the global distribution of zoonotic pathogens and their host species.

A zoonotic pathogen is any pathogen that can be transmitted from animals to humans and cause disease. The figure contains six maps that show the geographic distribution of clades, or groups, of mammal species known to carry zoonotic pathogens. The six clades include carnivores (Carnivora), bats (Chiroptera), primates (Primates), rodents (Rodentia), shrews and moles (Soricomorpha), and non-domesticated hoofed mammals (Ungulates).

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information. The original article is also provided as a download.

The “Resource Google Folder” link directs to a Google Drive folder of resource documents in the Google Docs format. Not all downloadable documents for the resource may be available in this format. The Google Drive folder is set as “View Only”; to save a copy of a document in this folder to your Google Drive, open that document, then select File → “Make a copy.” These documents can be copied, modified, and distributed online following the Terms of Use listed in the “Details” section below, including crediting BioInteractive.