epizootic
An occurrence of a disease or disorder in a population of non-human animals at a…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.
Meaning
3 sensesAn 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.
At the same time as an epidemic of the flu broke out among the people, an epizootic of the swine flu broke out among their pigs.
A particular epizootic disease.
(dialectal, humorous, in the plural, often)A disease or ailment (of humans).
Johnny's not doing so well today, I think he caught the epizootic.
Origin
From French épizootique, animal equivalent of epidemic, from épizootie, irregularly formedFrom French épizootique, animal equivalent of epidemic, from épizootie, irregularly formed from Ancient Greek ἐπί (epí) + ζῷον (zōîon, “animal”).
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.