Sometimes you and I need help with scientific terms. In today’s article, let’s look at the scientific terms used for animal groups.
Why? For one thing, it helps to understand the types of animals in these scientific categories and to recognize how they are closely related. Understanding these terms when animal diseases are in the news may also be helpful. We’ll circle back around to this at the end of the article.
We’ll talk about some of the more predominant animal, livestock, and poultry species you might find in northern Indiana, at a 4-H fair, or the zoo. These are Latin-derived terms of or about animals with similar characteristics.
Let’s begin.
“Avian” is a term used for birds of all kinds. According to USDA, “poultry” is any domesticated bird [fowl] used for food [meat or eggs]. Varieties include chicken, turkey, goose, duck, Rock Cornish hens, and game birds such as pheasant, squab, and guinea fowl. Huge birds such as ostriches, emu, and rheas (ratites) are also included. “Waterfowl” are birds naturally found around bodies of water, such as ducks and geese.
“Bovine” is a term that refers to cattle, including dairy cows and beef cattle. Bison are also bovines. According to the National Park Service, bison are the largest mammal in North America.
“Camelids” include llamas and alpacas. As you might guess from the name, camels are also in this grouping.
“Caprine” is a term that relates to goats, including dairy goats, Boer goats (meat goats), pygmy goats, and other types of goats.
“Cavies” include domesticated guinea pigs, wild cavies, and capybaras (the latter two are native to South America). They are also considered rodents, and the capybara is the largest known rodent in the world.
"Cervids" are deer, elk, and similar animals.
“Equine” is a term that refers to horses, ponies, donkeys, and mules. Also in this category are zebras and other horse-like animals you might see in a zoo.
“Ovine” is a term relating to sheep.
“Porcine” is a term relating to swine or pigs.
“Ratites” are cassowaries, emus, kiwis, ostriches, and rheas.
Let’s circle back to livestock diseases that have been in the news at one time or another.
Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) is a virus contracted by horses, and spread by mosquitoes. Part of the disease name contains the word equine, for horses. Humans can also get the disease from a mosquito bite, but there is no known human-to-human or horse-to-horse transmission.
Another example is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). One look at the scientific name tells us that this is a disease of bovine, or cattle, commonly referred to as mad cow disease.
A final example is avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu.
For more information about livestock and poultry, visit the Purdue Animal Sciences website at https://ag.purdue.edu/department/ansc/index.html and USDA’s page on animals at https://www.usda.gov/topics/animals.