Abstract
Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals is new, and not just newly organized, but the type of new that for us as reviewers means “there-isn’t-anything-out-there-to-compare-it-to” new. The editors have assembled a team of nearly 100 writers, and together they have done an impressive and really useful job of taming the (sometimes) chaotic and often scattered information on disease research in zoo and wildlife species. These writers have sifted through the literature and their own experiences for significant, practical, and well-illustrated information. The chapter organization, which is mostly by animal taxonomic rank, gives an overview of the broad inclusion of the animals covered in the text. One of us reviewers is well versed in taxonomy, and the chapter headings were immediately usable. The other of us was simply grateful when, in the pdf and e-versions, she could easily click on the heading to be brought immediately to the chapter on, for example, Phoenicopteriformes (which are for one, and actually for only, flamingos). Invertebrates are included, and given that invertebrates are more than 90% of all animal species, it has been sheer hubris that until now, most wildlife and zoo references have not given them a seat at the diagnostic and disease investigation table. Their welcome inclusion here reminds us (and helps us) to pay attention and devote resources to investigating diseases in all species, which will in turn better our understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics. The chapters are mostly organized to avoid being a “laundry list” of diseases, and most include details and helpful illustrations of unique anatomy and/or point directly to recommended texts for more detail. In general, this book provides a gathered and thoughtful starting point for understanding the state of knowledge for animal groups, and while pathology for some groups has been reviewed elsewhere, many of these chapters are newly conceived. For pathologists who deal only occasionally with nondomestic species, how comforting it will be to have a go-to reference and a starting point when the odd phoenicopterid lands on the necropsy table. We think having the chapters on laboratory diagnostics and clinical pathology is a great idea, as we referred to them often while considering the interpretation of diagnostic tests and especially while negotiating the clinical data of such a wide range of species.
We are not sure how useful it is to compare the physical text, the pdf version, and the e-book, since readers will have their own ways of digesting material, but for us (as pathologists who sometimes encounter all different species), all are useful. The e-book is easy to navigate and easily searchable—the search feature pulls up the term in its context in the text, with the chapter title clearly indicated. This is a simple feature, but we appreciated how easy it makes searching the text. Nearly all references are linked in the text and point directly to citations in chapter indices. There are hyperlinks to external websites embedded directly in the text, and we would predict from choosing a few that these have been vetted as durable and supported websites. The e-book supplemental material also includes some methods immediately useful to a diagnostician. There are about 200 scanned virtual slides representing an assortment of lesions and a few normal anatomic features. For some chapters, this feature is limited (eg, 1 slide each for Crocodilia and Amphibia), but while this can make the included choices seem random, those slides that are available are of high quality and will be really useful for pathologists or trainees interested in comparing histologic features of a particular lesion. Regardless, the beauty of the digital supplemental material is that it can be expanded in real time or in future editions.
The book fills an important need for scholars of wildlife and of public and ecosystem health. And without a doubt, as this is a pathologist-diagnostician centered review, we believe that Pathology of Wildlife and Zoo Animals deserves a space on the bookshelf, on the hard drive, or in some shared cloud space of any pathologist or clinician who encounters, even occasionally, nondomestic species.