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

This book is Out of Print.

This welcome volume follows the 1996 publication of the second edition of Noninfectious Diseases of Wildlife, as the Blackwell Publishing continues to update its venerable series of texts on wildlife disease. The first edition of Parasitic Diseases of Wild Mammals, published in 1971, contained information on only 17 different parasites or related groups. The newly published second edition presents current summaries of five groups of ectoparasites (lice, biting flies, bot flies, ticks, and mange mites), ten groups of helminths or endoparasites (liver flukes, taeniid tapeworms, gastrointestinal nematodes of ruminants, lungworms of terrestrial and marine mammals, baylisascarids, filaroid nematodes, kidney worms, hepatic nematodes, and trichinella), and nine groups of protozoans including enteric forms (amoeba, giardia, coccidia), tissue-invaders (amoebae, hepatozoons, besnoitia, and toxoplasma and relatives), and blood-inhabiting forms (trypanosomes and relatives, and piroplasms).

Most of the chapters discuss the same relevant topics of their specific parasites: life history, epizootiology, clinical signs, pathology, diagnosis, immunity, control and treatment, public health concerns, domestic animal health concerns, and management implications. The text's uniformity makes it easy to read and use, particularly to compare points across species (for example, the epizootiology of related parasite species). The reference lists are complete and up to date. Many of the chapters have distribution maps, which are very useful, and many chapters also have life cycle diagrams, also very useful. A few chapters, however, were sparsely illustrated; the tick chapter, in particular, would have benefited greatly from illustration (it had none). I found the chapters on bots (gotta love 'em), baylisascaris, and toxoplasmosis to be especially well done. The chapter authors (including the authoritative Dr. J. Dubey, Mr. Toxo himself, who must cite about 80 of his own papers in the reference section) have done a commendable job.

I hate to say better late than never, but 30 years between editions is a tad long. It is a pleasure to finally have this fairly-priced, second edition of Parasitic Diseases of Wild Mammals available. It is an extremely well-done text, and it is to be recommended very highly to any veterinarian, student, or wildlife biologist interested in or working with either free-ranging or captive wildlife.

Blackwell Publishing (2001).

ISBN: 9780813829784.

Reviewed 2/26/2001.