Abstract
This book is a welcome update by the original authors, both of whom are respected authorities on diseases of laboratory animals. Like the original 1993 edition, the new edition contains six chapters, one each on the mouse, rat, Syrian hamster, Mongolian gerbil, guinea pig, and rabbit. The general organization of each chapter is similar. Each begins with a introductory background section, followed by a description of anatomic features relevant to diagnostic pathology. These sections are useful and informative for readers not thoroughly familiar with the species. In some cases, particularly the mouse chapter, experienced laboratory animal pathologists also may discover new tidbits. Infectious diseases are organized according to etiologic agent, beginning with viral diseases, which are divided into DNA and RNA viruses. Bacterial diseases generally are divided into those caused by gram-negative and those caused by gram-positive organisms, with other divisions as appropriate. For example, the mouse chapter has a section on gastrointestinal bacterial diseases, and the rat and rabbit chapters have sections on respiratory bacterial diseases. In some cases, these sections have been considerably reorganized from the first edition. Fungal infections are covered in a separate section, followed by parasites, divided into ectoparasites and endoparasites. After infectious conditions are sections on nutritional and metabolic disorders; aging, degenerative, and miscellaneous disorders; and neoplasms. Additional sections are included if appropriate; for example, the mouse chapter includes sections on behavioral disorders, environment-related disease, and genitourinary disorders. For each condition, epizootiology, pathogenesis, gross and microscopic lesions, diagnosis, and significance are described if known, and a brief history is given for many classic or highly important conditions. For little-known or rare conditions, available information is summarized. Discussions of diagnosis frequently list differential diagnoses that should be considered. As the authors state in the preface, the emphasis is on infectious diseases, and these are covered most thoroughly, although a fair number of relatively obscure noninfectious conditions are briefly covered in many other sections. Readers are directed to other sources of more detailed information on topics such as pathology of aging and neoplastic diseases. Representative gross photographs, photomicrographs, or both are provided for most major conditions and for many minor ones. Each section is accompanied by a bibliography. The list of references is selected in most cases, and highly so in some cases, but in general key papers and books are listed.
Each chapter has been revised and updated to reflect new information available since the first edition. Advances in diagnostic technology, such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods for detection of rodent infectious agents, are mentioned, although I would have liked for the authors to have emphasized issues of quality control in the use of PCR for this purpose. The mouse chapter in particular has been extensively revised and includes a new section on genetically engineered mice, a welcome addition. In the introduction to this chapter, the authors emphasize the importance of genetics in mouse biology and pathology, particularly in regard to variations among the huge and ever-increasing numbers of strains and spontaneous and induced mutations. Some readers may find this a rather obvious point, but I agree that the importance of such matters commonly is not appreciated. The authors also note that “it is difficult for a pathologist to command in-depth knowledge of all strains of mice”; thus, I also was gratified to see included a reference to the extremely useful resources of the web site of the Jackson Laboratory. Other specific revisions and updates include, for example, discussions of Helicobacter spp. in the mouse, rat, and hamster chapters; viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits; Lawsonia intracellularis; and CAR bacillus. It is too bad that the length of time involved in book publishing inevitably results in omission of a few recent findings, an example being the finding that the Escherichia coli reported to be associated with proliferative colitis in mice was a misidentified Citrobacter rodentium isolate.
I did not exhaustively catalog the illustrations, but many are repeats from the first edition, others have been omitted, and some new ones have been added. A few examples of illustrations that have been added, omitted, or otherwise changed include photomicrographs of lesions of mousepox in the skin, Sendai virus infection in the lung of a SCID mouse, mouse hepatitis virus infection in the small intestine of an infant mouse, encephalomyelitis virus infection of the brain of a SCID mouse, and Mycoplasma pulmonis lung disease in mice and gross photographs of lesions of mouse hepatitis virus infection in the liver, Corynebacterium bovis dermatitis in a nude mouse, and hepatic coccidiosis in rabbits. Photomicrographs are generally of good quality, although a few have too much or too little contrast. The quality of gross photographs is much more variable. Some are quite good, but many lack contrast and sharpness. Examples occur throughout the book, as in the first edition. I was disappointed to see that there also was some loss of quality of illustrations reused from the first edition and that most such illustrations are printed at somewhat smaller sizes than in the first edition, presumably because of the smaller page size.
The variation in image quality is the only real flaw in the book. There are a small number of minor errors, such as reference to Helicobacter bilis as H. “colis” and to Erysipelothrix as “Erysipelas” and misspelling Klebsiella pneumoniae as K. “pneumonia” and Aspiculuris as “Aspicularis.”
The authors state in the preface that this book is “designed to serve as a general reference … [and] is not intended to be a comprehensive and detailed source of information on all aspects of laboratory animal pathology.” It meets this objective very well. There is no other current reference text providing a convenient single source of information on diseases of the six species covered by this book. Most other current reference texts on pathology of rats and mice heavily emphasize toxicologic or geriatric pathology or genetically engineered mice and are based on a limited number of strains. Information on diseases of rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, and gerbils is distributed among a number of reference texts, several of which are outdated or out of print. Access to such information, although a necessity for laboratory animal pathologists, is likely to be inconvenient or prohibitively expensive for others. Thus, the book is an excellent value, minor shortcomings notwithstanding. I use it almost daily.