(EnviroInfo Dessau 2012, Part 1: Core Application Areas, 2012) Armbruster, Walter J.
Avian influenza has been an ongoing concern as a zoonotic food animal disease transmissible to humans which
emerged from relative isolation in Asia onto the world stage starting in 2003. The concern is that this disease will
transform to become readily transmitted among humans, creating a worldwide pandemic with severe human health
and economic impacts. To date, the virus has shown itself to be relatively inefficient in mutating into a human transmissible form. Nonetheless, the economic impacts of the threat of such occurrence have been significant, as they
have been for other zoonotic diseases circulating internationally.