Guest Review by Ned Gentz, MS, DVM, DACZM, Albuquerque Biological Park, Albuquerque, NM 
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The original Infectious and Parasitic Diseases of Wild Birds was originally published in 1971 and was only a mere 344 pages long. When this book’s update was being planned, it was decided that infectious diseases and parasitic diseases of wild birds both merited their own books. Infectious Diseases of Wild Birds was published in 2007. With the publication of this new volume, the update of the entire original series (including infectious, parasitic, and noninfectious diseases of wild mammals) is complete.
The parasitic disease section of the original 1971 text only contained eight chapters and a scant 141 pages. This new edition contains nearly 600 pages and 32 chapters. The book is divided into five sections. Section I contains an introductory chapter on parasitism: costs and effects and is a very nice introduction to the subject matter. Section II covers protozoa and contains ten chapters. Section III covers helminths and contains 16 chapters. Section IV contains a single chapter on leeches while Section V covers arthropods and contains four chapters.
The book is organized so that all the chapters pretty much cover all the same topics, a system I always enjoy. These topics include: history, distribution, host range, etiology, epizootiology, clinical signs, pathogenesis/pathology, diagnosis, immunity, public health concerns, domestic animal health concerns, wildlife population impacts, treatment/control, and management implications.
The text is better supplemented in some chapters than in others. Distribution maps, when included, are always appreciated, the same with photographs of gross lesions. Photographs and microphotographs of the parasites themselves are more common. Another common technique in many chapters that works very well is the use of hand-drawn diagrams interpreting microscopic structures in the microphotographs. However, a few of the hand-drawn diagrams are surprisingly crudely drawn. Overall this very reasonably-priced book is quite well-done. I recommend this book to any veterinarian working with wild birds or wild-caught birds including zoo specimens or veterinary students with an interest in such matters. Wildlife biologists, wildlife rehabilitators and wildlife centers should also find this book useful. University parasitologists should also find an interest in this new offering.
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing (2009).
595 pages.
ISBN: 9780813820811.