The importance of zoonoses in public health is well established, and our understanding of them has benefited from considerable progress in the biological characterization of the causative agents and in our knowledge of how they spread. Definitions of zoonoses today increasingly focus on the molecular and epidemiological characteristics of the causative agents and emphasize an understanding of their transmission cycles. Since the mid-20th century, through considerable efforts in France, significant progress has led to the near-eradication of the indigenous animal reservoir (rabies, brucellosis, BSE) or a marked decrease in human prevalence (listeriosis). New investigative methods (intervention epidemiology, molecular epidemiology) have been developed, based on close collaboration between National Reference Centers (CNR), National Reference Laboratories (LNR), epidemiological surveillance and intervention epidemiology units, and government control agencies. The potential for the re-emergence of classic zoonoses (tuberculosis, anthrax, rabies) is real, but it is the emerging diseases—most often linked to changes in the interaction between humans and their environment—that are of greatest concern for the future. The development of antibiotic resistance in zoonotic agents also warrants special attention. (R.A.)