Animal pathology is the main constraint on herd productivity in Africa. Diseases supposed to be controlled or to have disappeared are re-emerging. Wild animals are often playing a key role in maintaining the diseases or even in spreading them. Three examples underline the narrow link between domestic and wild animals in disease transmission: Rinderpest has been controlled in most African countries thanks to massive vaccination campaigns in the cattle population. However, Rinderpest still persists in East Africa, mainly in the wildlife living in national parks. It is a lineage II virus with pathogenic effects in wild animals but the virus is very mild for cattle. The global eradication programme has to be revised in the light of this new epidemiology. African Swine Fever is re-emerging in West Africa and appeared recently in Madagascar where 60% of the pigs died from the disease. The virus can be maintained in a selvatic epidemiological cycle through wild Suidae and Ornithodoros ticks. Heartwater is a major constraint to the improvement of animal production in Africa, Madagascar and several islands in the Indian Ocean and in the Caribbean. Many wild animals and not only ruminants could play a role as reservoirs. More importantly, infected ticks which are the main reservoir, can be transported on long distances by birds, feral dogs, etc. Understanding the interactions between wildlife and domestic animals is a prerequisite to understand the epidemiology of many infectious diseases and therefore to design sound control measures.