# Do animals have STDs/STIs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2006, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276 "2006-11-06T08:53:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/1 "2006-11-06T08:53:12Z")
I’m sure such an obvious question has been asked and answered before but my search results turned up nothing… So do STD’s (in the same sense as human ones) exist in the animal kingdom? If so why do we never really hear about them? It seems if they did, they’d be rather rampant since very few animals (any?) remain monogamous. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/2 "2006-11-06T08:58:00Z")
Yes, they can transmit things like herpes. There was a thread a while back about a woman dying of a bat bite, because she contracted herpes if I recall correctly. Felines have their own[immune deficiency disease](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_AIDS), which is transmitted via bodily fluids. **It is not able to be transmitted to humans**. ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/3 "2006-11-06T09:04:28Z")
Mea culpa on the herpes, I wasn’t very accurate at all. [Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=393308) is the thread on the matter. She didn’t so much as get herpes from the bat, as the bat triggered a herpes reaction that ended up killing her. Various animals do however (as the thread points out wrt rhesus monkeys) have STDs, some of which are transmittable to humans, other are only species specific. ---
**Author:** ![bluezooky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@bluezooky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluezooky)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/4 "2006-11-06T09:13:10Z")
STD seem equally common in animals as in humans for example Australia’s Koala bear is declining for two reasons, habitat change and the transmission of Chlamydia, one of the most common human STDs. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/5 "2006-11-06T12:22:05Z")
Hey, Chlamydia (and Chlamydophila) can also be a non-sexually transmitted disease in different species of animals, just because it is a human STD doesn’t mean other species of the bacteria are STDs. Same with herpes, it is not always a sexually transmitted disease in animals (in cats, herpes is a respiratory disease that can cause eye and mouth problems). Silly thing is, in some cases while one species can live with their strain of herpes, if that strain infects another species, the second species dies from it. Best case is Herpes B in macaques. They (and a few other primate species) can live with the disease, but if humans get it, they’ll die (or get really bad meningitis and end up not in a very good shape). IIRC, there is a herpes equine strain that is an STD in horses, causing abortions. Mares are vaccinated against it. Well, there is a very important one in livestock, and that is Brucellosis. It is sexually transmitted in bovine, ovine, porcine, and caprine, and in at least 2 of those (pigs and cattle) it is a zoonotic disease (not a human STD, though). Current control measures (at least in the US) have made the rates of Brucellosis in cattle decline. Dogs also get Brucellosis, but the ones more concerned about that are the dog breeders. Cattle can also get Vibrio (Campylobacter) as an STD. They get vaccinated against it prior to the breeding season. The reason you don’t get to hear much about them is that, in the industry now at least, they have control programs where they vaccinate against many of those diseases, and try their best to keep them at bay (STDs can cause abortions or infertility problems, and those affect production). ---
**Author:** ![Zabali\_Clawbane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecd19e/32.png) [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/6 "2006-11-06T13:03:26Z")
It is also possible for humans to contract [chlamydia](http://www.cdc.gov/std/Chlamydia/STDFact-Chlamydia.htm) via non-sexual means. Children can be born with it. Children can also develop [candidiasis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candidiasis) without being sexually molested. Dogs can be infected with [scabies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scabies) and cross contaminate too. ---
**Author:** ![easy\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@easy\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/easy_e)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/7 "2006-11-06T14:28:23Z")
One of the modes of transmission for [devil facial tumor disease](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_facial_tumour_disease) is thought to be agressive mating among Tasmanian devils. It’s not the mating itself that transmits the disease, but biting and so forth that goes along with it. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2006, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/8 "2006-11-06T23:35:58Z")
Oh yea, dogs can also get transmissible venereal tumor. It looks like a nasty, ugly thing that can be confused with other types of cancer, but it is easily cured with some vincristine. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/9 "2006-11-07T04:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > **It is not able to be transmitted to humans.** And the reason for this, of course, is that you [can’t park a Cadillac in a closet](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_195a.html) ;). ---
**Author:** ![Pullet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Pullet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pullet)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/10 "2006-11-07T10:21:14Z")
My personal favorite are the sexually transmissable parasites. My personal favorite is trichomoniasis. In humans, it’s an STD. In cattle (tritrichomonas fetus), it’s an STD. In birds, it can be transmitted through watering systems or food, or by a parent pigoen feeding a baby. Awesome. And then there is Dourine in horses. Neat. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/11 "2006-11-07T18:08:14Z")
HIV is apparently the human form of SIV, found to exist in chimpanzees for certain. Presumably it is transmitted by chimp sex, the same way it is transmitted by, among other things, human sex. And STD doesn’t have to be solely obtainable through sex, as HIV itself demonstrates. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/12 "2006-11-07T18:48:32Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] And the reason for this, of course, is that you [can’t park a Cadillac in a closet](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_195a.html) ;). [/QUOTE] Zabali said the disease is transmitted by body fluids. He didn’t say it is transmitted by sex. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/13 "2006-11-07T19:19:09Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] And the reason for this, of course, is that you [can’t park a Cadillac in a closet](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_195a.html) ;). [/QUOTE] Not everybody is blessed with a Cadillac. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/14 "2006-11-07T20:03:50Z")
Just what closet are we talking about, exactly, and has Tom Cruise come out of it yet? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-animals-have-stds-stis/379276/15 "2006-11-07T20:07:38Z")
[QUOTE=BrandonR] I’m sure such an obvious question has been asked and answered before but my search results turned up nothing… So do STD’s (in the same sense as human ones) exist in the animal kingdom? If so why do we never really hear about them? It seems if they did, they’d be rather rampant since very few animals (any?) remain monogamous. [/QUOTE] I think I know where you are going with this, the answer is yes, you still need to where a condom even if your partner is an animal.