Abstract
Mycoplasma are important veterinary pathogens and cause devastating and economically important diseases in animals, especially in food-producing animals. For the past several years, significant advancement has been made in Mycoplasma research in animals, which led to improved understanding of pathogenesis and diagnosis of this problematic disease entity.
Mycoplasma Diseases of Ruminants provides concise information about research and development on diseases caused by Mycoplasma spp. in ruminants. This book also briefly illustrates current knowledge available on the diagnosis and prevention of diseases caused by Mycoplasma spp. Because this book is compiled by a group of scientists from Europe who have expertise on Mycoplasma, emphasis is placed on Mycoplasma spp. responsible for contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and contagious caprine pleuropneumonia.
The information in this textbook is presented in 2 parts, with 14 chapters. The first part, chapters 1–6, concisely describes the current information on diagnosis of Mycoplasma infections and currently used methods, including conventional and molecular methods for speciation and typing of Mycoplasma isolates obtained from ruminant species. In addition, a brief chapter on antimicrobial testing methods and appropriate references is very useful to obtain relevant information on this topic. The second part, chapters 7–14, describes various disease entities caused by Mycoplasma spp. in ruminants. Although the pictures are of good quality, I wish they were in color. There are also occasional misspellings in the book. This textbook will be very useful for veterinary practitioners, diagnosticians, and microbiology laboratory staff. I recommend that a copy of this book should be made available at every veterinary diagnostic laboratory.