Epizootic

An epizootic is a sharp increase in the number of new cases of a disease within a population. Epizootics can be caused by many different factors, for example, if a disease of cattle is insect borne then an increase in the number of insect vectors can result in increased transmission rates and a subsequent epizootic of that disease within the cattle population. Yellow fever is one insect borne disease that regularly has epizootics although the cause of the epizootics isn't always related to insect vector populations.

Epizootic is a term that is not usually applied to humans, in humans the term used is an epidemic but the meaning is the same.

A photograph of an adult female Aedes aegypti mosquito taking a blood meal. The mosquito is a vector of yellow fever.
Photograph by United States Department of Agriculture.

Other names for (or types of) Epizootic include:

• Epidemic

Related terms

• Dengue fever
• Malaria
• Vector
• Yellow fever

Related groups of terms

• General biology

See other words beginning with E