Thread: Always use a condom!

For all the animal lovers out there:

How Often Do Animals Get STDs?

Most of the animal kingdom never practices safe sex, and they have the battle scars to prove it.
by Melissa Lafsky

Sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) are on the rise in the U.S., to the point where even senior citizens are seeing upswings in infections. But STDs also occur throughout the animal kingdom, in species from mammals to insects to birds. And recent progress on a chlamydia vaccine for koalas may even lead to breakthroughs in vaccinating humans against sexually transmited infections.
STDs in animals and humans have a historical relationship. "Two or three of the major STDs have come from animals," says Alonso Aguirre, a veterinarian and vice president for conservation medicine at Wildlife Trust. "We know, for example, that gonorrhea came from cattle to humans. Syphilis also came to humans from cattle or sheep many centuries ago, possibly sexually." The most recent, as well as the deadliest, STD to migrate to humans is HIV, which hunters acquired from the blood of chimpanzees, says Aguirre. The disease became transmissible from one person to another through semen and other bodily fluids after it had spread to the human population.
The most common sexually transmitted disease among animals today is brucellosis, or undulant fever, which is common among domestic livestock and occurs in mammals including dogs, goats, deer, and rats. A bacterial infection that can be treated with antibiotics, the disease can be transmitted sexually or otherwise; for example, groups of cattle often eat the placenta of a spontaneously aborted fetus, and they can acquire the disease that way. Symptoms of the disease include miscarriage, inflammation of the testes, and uterine infections. Humans can contract brucellosis through drinking contaminated milk or through direct contact with infected animals.

Because brucellosis is so prevalent and so dangerous to people, animal professionals are careful to watch for the disease. "We look out for it religiously," says Kathryn Gamble, the director of veterinary services at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo. "All of our domestic animals we screen for Brucella," the bacterium that causes brucellosis.
Another STD that humans and other animals share is chlamydia, a bacterial infection that has been found in a wide variety of species including many mammals, birds, and reptiles. The human and animal STDs are spread by different species of Chlamydia (C. psittaci and C. trachomatis, respectively), so the disease can't be spread between humans and animals. Unfortunately for animals, Chlamydia psittaci can also be transmitted through mucous membranes such as the eyes and urogenital tract, so mothers can give it to newborns and males can become infected through fighting. (Birds often contract clamydia when eggs touch the mother's fecal material during egg-laying.) As with humans, the disease can seriously damage the reproductive system, causing infertility, abortion, inflammation of the testicles, and sterility, as well as high fevers and problems in the respiratory and digestive systems.
In Australia, researchers have been working on a chlamydia vaccine for koalas, which may also be a step towards development of a human vaccine. Peter Timms and Ken Beagley from Queensland University of Technology's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation spent years developing a vaccine for humans; when they saw a widespread chlamydia outbreak among the local koala population, the researchers turned their efforts to protecting the animals. Timms says that while the disease has also been reported in other animals in the region, including bandicoots and possums, koalas have been the most affected. The marsupials are known for their active sex lives, and as many as 50 percent of the koalas treated at the university have shown signs of the sexually transmitted disease.
So far, tests of the koala vaccine have brought encouraging results: Eighteen females treated with it are showing improvement. Nonetheless, Timms estimates that his team will need at least three more trials, each taking about one year, before the vaccine is complete.
So will a successful koala vaccine lead to immunization for humans? "That's a hard question," says Timms. Rather than the psittaci strain that's common in other animals, koalas are usually infected with C. pecorum, which shares a DNA homology, or similarity, of less than 10 percent with the human strain.
Still, Timms and his team are optimistic: "Our approach has been to find antigens that are conserved across all chlamydial species, with [a human vaccine] in mind."

How Often Do Animals Get STDs? | Animal Intelligence | DISCOVER Magazine

I think KW is the expert here. Comments please, KW.

Lets just hope Travelmate reads this!

So basically if humans hadn't started shagging animals, there would be no human STD's.

Chlamydial infections of dogs - canines - clinical - epidemiology


"Like humans, dogs may occasionally be unusual hosts for avian chlamydiae, becoming infected but rarely transmitting the infection. Several reports describe dogs acquiring avian chlamydial infections (Fraser et al., 1969; Fukushi et al., 1985; Krauss et al., 1988). In the case described by Fraser, a dog and several people contracted a presumed avian chlamydial infection from budgerigars that died of chlamydiosis in an aviary. The dog developed respiratory signs and a high chlamydial antibody titre, and chlamydial agents were recovered from the faeces of two other contact dogs. In another report, a dog contracted a highly pathogenic chlamydial strain from a turkey (Arizmendi et al., 1992). Chlamydiae were isolated from pleural effusion in the affected animal. C. psittaci infection was also identified by Krauss et al., (1988) in a case of conjunctivitis in a dog.
Gresham et al., (1996) reported a remarkable household outbreak of chlamydiosis affecting multiple hosts. Three humans and two of three dogs acquired infection with an avian strain of C. psittaci two to three weeks after acquiring a new cockatiel [a psittacine bird]. The bird developed a mild oculo-nasal discharge and C. psittaci DNA was detected by PCR in a faecal sample. Symptoms in the humans included nausea, lethargy, cramps, fever, headache, photophobia and hallucinations. One person was ill for three months. Symptoms in the dogs, included acute onset shivering, coughing, retching, dyspnoea and fever plus a slight oculo-nasal discharge. C. psittaci DNA was detected by PCR in one of the affected dogs. The people and the dogs were treated with antibiotics, and the cockatiel was killed [] on the grounds that it presented a significant risk of further infection. One of the dogs continued to show chronic signs of lethargy and fever and was treated with a second course of antibiotic after which it recovered. Cats and dogs, as well as birds and farm mammals, are potential sources of animal-derived chlamydial infection in humans (Elliot et al., 1985; Werth, 1989)."

Nice to see noodles keeping up to date on current affairs which are to his lifestyle.

is this thread leading into a welsh and sheep thread i hope not

Originally Posted by Nawty

Nice to see noodles keeping up to date on current affairs which are to his lifestyle.

And make sure you use a condom when you find that bisexual guy you have advertised for.

Originally Posted by welshtaffia

is this thread leading into a welsh and sheep thread i hope not

the whole affair between you lot and them sheep just goes without saying

Originally Posted by JoGeAr

I think KW is the expert here. Comments please, KW.

Always wear a condom.

Originally Posted by kingwilly

Always wear a condom.

But it gets a bit uncomfortable while I'm playing golf and I start sweating a bit.