Guest Review by Ned Gentz, MS, DVM, DACZM, Albuquerque Biological Park, Albuquerque, NM, USA (Click on stars for an explanation)

You may purchase this book on  Amazon.com.

The Blackwell Publishing continues to update its venerable series of texts on wildlife disease. It's been twenty years since the second edition of Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals was published. Knowledge of the diseases discussed in the previous edition has expanded greatly, and many new infectious problems have emerged.

Accordingly, the new edition of Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals is a third larger than the previous edition. The book is divided into two sections. The first section, viral and prion diseases, contains 17 chapters; the second section, bacterial and mycotic diseases, contains 29 chapters.

Most of the chapters discuss the same relevant topics for their specific diseases: distribution/host range, etiology, transmission/epidemiology, clinical signs, pathogenesis/pathology, diagnosis and differential diagnoses, immunity, control and treatment, public health concerns, domestic animal health concerns, and management implications.

Several recently-emerged diseases not included in the previous edition are covered here, including Lyme borreliosis, transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, and calicivirus infections. The text's uniformity makes it easy to read and use, particularly to compare points between and among related diseases. The reference lists are complete and up to date. The chapter authors have all done a commendable job; I found the chapters on rabies, brucellosis, rodent-borne hemorrhagic fever viruses, and poxvirus to be especially well done. However, the poxvirus chapter would have benefited from an illustration or two, as would the chapter on malignant catarrhal fever. The book is, in general, sparsely illustrated - likely as a space-saving device. Many of the chapters are not adversely affected by a lack of illustration, but the chapter on mycotic diseases stands out because of its effective use of appropriate illustrations. Distribution maps are appreciated in the few chapters in which they appear.

It is a pleasure to have this new, fairly-priced, third edition of Infectious Diseases of Wild Mammals available. It is an extremely well-done text, and it is to be recommended very highly to any veterinarian, student, wildlife biologist, and epidemiologist interested in or working with either free-ranging or captive wildlife.

Blackwell Publishing (2000).

558 pages.

ISBN: 9780813825564.

Reviewed 3/1/2001.