Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Occurring at the same time among an unusually large number of animals in a particular geographic area. Used of a disease.
  • noun An epizootic disease.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In natural history, same as epizoic, 1.
  • In geology, containing fossil remains: said of mountains, rocks, formations, and the like.
  • Prevailing among the lower animals: applied to diseases, and corresponding to epidemic as applied to diseases prevalent among men.
  • noun The temporary prevalence of a disease among brutes at a certain place: used in exactly the same way as epidemic in reference to human beings.
  • noun A disease thus prevalent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A disease attacking many animals at the same time; an epizootic disease.
  • noun A murrain; an epidemic influenza among horses.
  • adjective (Zoöl.) Of or pertaining to an epizoön.
  • adjective (Geol.), obsolete Containing fossil remains; -- said of rocks, formations, mountains, and the like.
  • adjective Of the nature of a disease which attacks many animals at the same time; -- corresponding to epidemic diseases among men.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun epidemiology An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a population of non-human animals at a frequency higher than that expected in a given time period. Compare epidemic.
  • noun A particular epizootic (epizootically-occurring) disease.
  • noun dialectal, humorous, often plural A disease or ailment.
  • adjective epidemiology Like or having to do with an epizootic: epidemic among animals.
  • adjective geology, rare Containing fossils.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (of animals) epidemic among animals of a single kind within a particular region

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[epi– + zo(o)– + –otic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

epi- + zo- + -otic. Use of the word in the second sense, "an ailment", was likely originally a reference to a particular epizootic ailment. Both senses are attested since at least the 1800s, and the pronunciation with five syllables is explicitly attested since then as well. Dialectal pronunciation of the second sense with four syllables is attested since at least the 1910s in spellings like "epizudic" and is suggested by 1870s references to a shortened form of the word, "zooty".

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Examples

  • An "epizootic," by contrast, is an epidemic that affects a large number of animals, but in one population or region. pathogen

    Influenza Glossary 2008

  • Handel and Van Hemert are authors of two new papers describing what appears to be a building "epizootic," the wildlife equivalent of an epidemic, for which no cause has yet been identified.

    NYT > Home Page By ANDREW C. REVKIN 2010

  • Handel and Van Hemert are authors of two new papers describing what appears to be a building "epizootic," the wildlife equivalent of an epidemic, for which no cause has yet been identified.

    NYT > Home Page By ANDREW C. REVKIN 2010

  • I fear he has the epizootic, which is a very dreadful disease. "

    Lulu, Alice and Jimmie Wibblewobble Howard Roger Garis 1917

  • HD is caused by two closely related viruses, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) or bluetongue virus.

    Anti-Deer-Hunting Billboard Goes Up in Kansas City 2009

  • HD is caused by two closely related viruses, epizootic hemorrhagic disease (EHD) or bluetongue virus.

    Anti-Deer-Hunting Billboard Goes Up in Kansas City 2009

  • In 1872, despite a case of epizootic influenza that basically sidelined all the fire department's horses, the city didn't want to rent horses to pull fire engines, deciding that it was better to send an officer to see if it merited dragging a hose to the fire, leaving the engine in the house.

    This Day in History, 1904: General Slocum Tragedy 2010

  • Prior to European settlement (pre-1850), a wide variety of disturbances characterized the region, ranging from frequent small-scale and localized events such as treefall gaps to rare, large-scale events such as stand-replacing fires and epizootic outbreaks.

    Eastern Cascades forests 2009

  • Infected from belt pack represents about to decided lipitor epizootic.

    Rudy: Iraq Is "In The Hands Of Other People" 2009

  • Typhoid epizootic sorb increased depends upon srm-rhotard vaccine.

    Rudy: Iraq Is "In The Hands Of Other People" 2009

Comments

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  • The Panic of 1873 was caused by the "Great Epizootic," a world-wide epidemic of equine influenza that crippled commerce when horses became unable to haul people or goods. The horses recovered within a year; the economy took a decade. More info here and here.

    February 3, 2009

  • "Shope had recently observed an extraordinarily violent influenza epizootic—an epidemic in animals—in swine. The overall mortality of the entire pig population had reached 4 percent; in some herds mortality had exceeded 10 percent. That very much sounded like the influenza pandemic in humans a decade earlier."

    —John M. Barry, The Great Influenza (NY: Penguin Books, 2004), 442

    February 18, 2009