Abstract
When an elephant arrives on the necropsy floor, the challenges of working with this wonderful and unwieldy creature become obvious. The need for a definitive medical text on this species has been equally obvious. This is a collaborative effort of two preeminent elephant veterinarians, Drs. Fowler and Mikota, as well as 36 other veterinarians, pathologists, and scientists, pulling together a disparate international body of literature spanning more than 150 years in a readable and practical volume.
The book first covers the biology, history, taxonomy, and husbandry of elephants. The medical disciplines of nutrition, preventative care, anesthesia, and restraint, surgery, infectious diseases, parasitology, pathology, therapeutics, and pediatrics are each covered in separate chapters. A useful feature of the book is the subsequent group of chapters divided by body system in which basic biology and diseases are covered in detail. Another unique feature is the “veterinary problems of geographic concern” section. Experts from Africa, India, Indochina and Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka present the distinctive challenges to captive and wild elephants in each country. A complete appendix offers supplemental material, including pharmaceutical sources, physiologic parameters, glossaries, and the Association of Zoos and Aquaria management guidelines.
Diagnosticians will find the sections on antemorten and postmortem diagnostics useful, providing practical advice to manage the logistical challenges associated with elephants. Diagrams, detailed dissection techniques, and lists of important necropsy tools are helpful in planning and conducting elephant necropsies. Among the 239 illustrations, a set of color plates provide photographs of common or important lesions and photomicrographs of the blood cells. The index is not exhaustive, but the division by body systems makes this less problematic.
While its intended audience might be limited, this is the only definitive text on these species and should be available at every institution that may be involved, even peripherally, with elephants.