Review by Kathy Lyon (Click on stars for an explanation)

This book is Out of Print.

There is no Table of Contents in this little reference volume, but one can flip through the pages and find a topic in the upper corner of the pages. The Index must be used to check on a specific parasite.

Each section begins with an overview of the particular parasite, including species and classification, morphology, life cycle, and important characteristics. The information relating to one-, two-, and three-host ticks is a little confusing. If I had only this book as a reference, I would still not be clear whether three-host ticks must change hosts in mid-development, or if they can achieve all three stages on the same host.

In reading about mites, I was eagerly looking for the information that red-mites (Dermanyssus gallinae) only feed on the host birds at night, and leave to hide in the environment during the day, so that part of the treatment is to remove the birds during the day and completely change or sterilize the environment. This important hint was not to be found. Biting lice are indicated to infest birds, but are not mentioned in the section on treatment and control. Also, lice are indicated to infest goats and sheep, but treatment for those species is omitted.

There are a few illustrations of parasite eggs found on fecal flotation. I found the information to be most useful if you already know the information. In reading the book as if I knew nothing about the topic (which is one way I like to evaluate the educational value of a book), I would have had many questions. I suppose the book is adequate if you are only using the it as an overview and to confirm what you already know, but if you follow the message boards on VIN, you will see that many questions come from clinicians whose experience is in other species (i.e., a small animal person wanting to know about birds), so this book would not be of much use in those situations. I was discouraged that those few items I chose to look up were not to be found.

I would not recommend this book as your only reference. Even though the information presented is accurate, it is far from complete. I understand that this was intended to be a small, quick reference guide, so we must forgive some of the abbreviated style, but the book could have been tightened up and much more information included (The formatting, titles, paragraphs, and line spaces took up valuable space that might have accommodated more information.)

Butterworth Heinemann imprint, an Elsevier title (2001).

Soft-cover, 319 pages.

ISBN: 9780750672610.