(On-screen title: How can animals make you ill? An animation. Drawings of various animals appear. Voice-over:)

SILENCE

TRANQUIL MUSIC

VOICE-OVER: Animals may carry bacteria, viruses and parasites.

Some of these micro-organisms can be transferred from animals to people

and may cause diseases. Such diseases are called zoonoses.

People can come into contact with pathogens from animals in different ways.

Via food,

direct contact

or the environment.

They can also be transmitted through little creatures,

such as ticks and mosquitoes,

that can transfer diseases from an animal to a human.

These are known as vectors.

Proper hygiene can often prevent people from catching a zoonosis.

Make sure you prepare meat and other raw products in a suitable manner.

Always wash your hands after direct contact with animals.

And check yourself for ticks when you have been in the countryside.

(On-screen text: National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. www.rivm.nl/zoonoses.)