Abstract
This series of articles is the second of its kind since 2000, when the Office International des Epizooties published “An Update on Zoonoses.”Author: This article has been lightly edited for grammar, style, and usage. Please compare it with your original document and make corrections on these pages. Please limit your corrections to substantive changes that affect meaning. If no change is required in response to a question, please write “OK as set” in the margin. Copy editor These articles are brief, informative, relevant, and cover a wide variety of topics ranging from various disease-specific reviews, including one on avian influenza microbial adaptation from R. G. Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, to more broad topical articles, including an introduction covering the series title, “Emerging Zoonoses and Pathogens of Public Health Concern” from Lonnie King, Dean of Michigan State University School of Veterinary Medicine. As it is a publication from the World Organization of Animal Health, articles are written primarily in English, but there are several entries in either Spanish or French, with the abstract translated into English. This series of 21 articles is a valuable resource for anyone looking for an update on the issues facing health professionals regarding prevention of zoonoses, public health, and food security, including but not exclusive to veterinary pathologists. The articles presented in this collection bring together many pressing issues including the need for cooperation between public and human health practitioners and animal health practitioners. Unfortunately, this lack of current cooperation is, for the most part, echoed in the institutions and departments represented by the chapter authors of this series; still predominantly filled by those involved in animal health and food safety with only a sprinkling of human health professionals, ecologists, and academicians from schools of public health. This series is very well referenced, is up-to-date, and includes some useful diagrams and schematics to bring clarity to the topics presented. While there is a table of contents detailing the articles that follow, as is common for publications of this nature there is no index. In sum, this is a dense, but concise, well-needed review of the relationship between emerging pathogens of public health concern and zoonotic diseases near and dear to every veterinarian's heart.