Melissa Lafsky does not list any credentials so it is no surprise to me that her article is full of assumptions and totally lacking in any science.
STDs are just that - SEXUALLY transmitted.
The examples given are either NOT sexually trqansmitted or are incorrect examples in the frst place.
For example, Chlamydia is a common disease in many species, including house cats for example, but it affects the eyes of our pets, not the sexual organs and is transmitted eye to eye via grooming.
Chlamydia is a bacteria that affects any mammal.
It is an STD in humans. That does not make it of animal origin nor does it make it an STD in animals.
ANother example: HIV is wel known as a sexually transmitted disease in humans.
HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) canot affect animals.
Simian monkeys get an equivalent illness called SIV (simian immunodeficient virus)
SIV canot infect humans or any other species.
Domestic cats and wild cats get an equivalent disease called FIV (feline imunodeficinecy virus)
FIV is NOT sexually transmitted.
It goes from cat to cat by bittten ears during fights, from saliva to blood. It is not transmitted during sexual behavior.
FIV causes AIDS disease in domestic cats but not in wild cats. Cats such as lions can be infected and be FIV positive but they do not get the disease.
FIV can not be transmitted to any other species, not even t different cat species. The DIV in lions is separate from the FIV in domestic cats for example.
These are the ONLY three Immunodeficiency viruses known, of the retrovirus/lentivirus group.
No other species have been found to have this kind of illness.
The illness mechanism is different but similar in each of the three, and is transmitted differently.
It was the writer's incorrect assumption that anything is an STD in animals - and the suggestion of animal sex with humans to supposedly explain transmission - is total imagination. A cow with a chlamydia infection somewhere would only need to be touched by a human to get it on their hands and from there to infect the human. No silly sex inventions needed.
So the article to suggest STDs are widespread animal issues or are transmitted to people from animals is fiction. Especially sexually.
Trying to be sensationalist no doubt.
It is all too easy to spread total baloney on the internet. ANone can write any nonsense there.
Instead:
Look for qualifications of people writing on scientific subjects - there are none in the article.
Namaste,
Irene
How Often Do Animals Get STDs? | DiscoverMagazine...
Most of the animal kingdom never practices safe sex, and they have the battle scars to prove it.
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Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.Furryboots.info
(Info on Feline health, genetics, nutrition & homeopathy)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."