Abstract
The Laboratory Rabbit, Guinea Pig, Hamster, and Other Rodents is a mammoth 8-pound text meant to be “an authoritative summary of the basic biology, husbandry, veterinary perspective and experimental use of these species.” The volume is sanctioned by the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine (ACLAM) as part of the ACLAM series of texts (commonly referred to as The Blue Books). While the series has published volumes on the laboratory rabbit, guinea pig, and hamster, this is the first edition to combine those species along with less commonly used rodents such as hamsters, chinchillas, degu, naked mole rats, deer mice, gerbils, cotton rat, and others. The goal to be an authoritative text is met via a large army of contributing coauthors (112) and reviewers (97). The volume has won the 2012 PROSE Award winner for Best Single Volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers. This is a very useful text and a needed reference in institutional and personal libraries.
The text is divided into 7 parts: I. General, II. Rabbits, III. Guinea Pigs, IV. Hamsters, V. Chinchillas, VI. Other Rodents, and Part VII: Formulary and Normative Values. The parts are further divided into chapters. In Part I: General, the chapters include the following: 1. Ethical Considerations and Regulatory Issues, 2. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 3. Clinical Biochemistry and Hematology, 4. Euthanasia and Necropsy, and 5. Zoonoses and Occupational Health. The remaining parts (II–VI) cover individual species, and the final Part VII contains the formulary and normative values. Although there is general consistency in topics covered and the layout of chapters within each part, there is some variation, likely reflecting the popularity of the particular species in research, the amount of material to review for a species, and the authors’ style. For most species, the topics covered include taxonomy and history; anatomy, physiology, and behavior; management, husbandry, and colony health; clinical/experimental methods; and review of the use of the species to model specific human diseases. Spontaneous diseases were either lumped together into one chapter or divided into multiple chapters covering specific disease categories (eg, infectious vs noninfectious) or divided by agents (eg, viral vs parasitic). For the rabbit (Part II), there is the most divergence from the basic chapter outline to include in-depth chapters on rabbit genetics and transgenics, polyclonal antibody production, and toxicity and safety testing. For other rodents (Part VI), the chapters are by species (eg, degu), and each chapter has sections that include an introduction including pictures of the species in life, biology, husbandry, diseases, experimental methods, and use in research. The Other Rodents part includes excellent introductions to unusual or rare laboratory animal species and succeeds in providing a comprehensive resource for the species through the chapter texts and associated references. As with the other parts in the volume, some chapters are more comprehensive than others but in general cover the basics for all species, with notable exception the last chapter in Part VI (Chapter 54: Sand Rat). Here the authors make a point that the chapter is not about the species biology, diseases, and general use in research; rather, the focus is “to illustrate the use of a rodent, other than the mouse or rat, to serve as model of an important human disease.” This is a noble goal and should be addressed as a portion of the chapter while still covering the basic species information expected from a reference text. The chapter is too narrowly focused on the sand rat as a model for diabetes rather than providing the comprehensive review of biology, husbandry, and diseases that would be most useful for the target audience, considered by the publisher’s website to be “biomedical researchers, laboratory animal veterinarians, and other professionals engaged in laboratory animal science.” Despite this one rogue chapter, the editors and publisher have performed the herculean task of maintaining relative consistency across related parts, chapters, and chapter sections. The final part, Part VII: Formulary and Normative Values, provides excellent quick look-up charts by species that are extensively referenced; the 2 chapters in this part alone are worth the price of the text.
The book is easy to use, despite its size, as the information is well indexed by diseases and species. Color coding of chapters by part also helps navigation. Overall, the text is decently illustrated for such a comprehensive reference, although chapters vary in quality and quantity of images. A few images were very poor quality and, in one case, failed to illustrate what was in the legend. An improvement would be additional labeling of the images with arrows and/or text that would guide readers. For following editions, increased use of larger high-quality color photographs would be welcome, especially in disease sections where gross and histologic color images were somewhat sparse.
The only significant complaint for this first edition is the lack of an online version, but a Kindle edition is available.
In summary, I highly recommend this text as the editors with their 112 coauthors have met the goal to provide a comprehensive resource for laboratory rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, and other rodents.