ELSEVIER Preventive Veterinary Medicine 26 (19%) 353-360

Book reviews

Mycobacterium bovis infection in animals and humans

Mycobacterium bovis infection in animals and humans, Charles 0. Thoen and James H. Steele (Editors), Iowa State University Press, Ames, 1995, 355 pp. $54.95, ISBN O-8138-2120-7.

With tuberculosis of animals and human beings not only prevailing but becoming increasingly re-emergent in developed and undeveloped countries alike, the first division of this book achieves an appropriate comprehensive review of the meaningful literature and dissemination of newer knowledge. It provides animal and human health care workers with succinct critical information as it applies to the infection, pathogenesis, diagnosis and protection against Mycobucferium bouis. The book documents the enig- matic nature of tuberculosis and some of the inadequacies of science to resolve issues for efficient control leading to eradication. A disease further complicated by the impacts of new reservoirs, socio-economic forces, and modem marketing trends in the global economy. Although rather repetitious however informative, the second division of the book chronicles the numerous regional and national tuberculosis programmes, which are of interest to those in regulatory medicine. This underscores the variability in success in controlling this disease and demonstrates the lack of coherence and consistency in applying currently available and newer technologies.

The book is current and informative about human M. bovis infections, newer molecular epidemiologic procedures, the qualities and limitations of tuberculin skin testing, the roles of captive and sylvatic animals in tuberculosis, the impacts of modem agricultural practices on disease transmission dynamics, and the development of control programs in developing countries. However, the book could have been improved by a more in-depth review of molecular pathogenesis, laboratory diagnostic methodologies, and newer approaches to developing tuberculosis vaccines. Similarly, more care with the quality of several figures and the thoroughness of the index of the book would have enhanced the value of the book.

On the other hand, the book succinctly and clearly presents the powerful uses of molecular epidemiology in identifying sources of infection as an additional basis for improved control programs. For those who believe the myths that ‘one tuberculin test fits all circumstances’ or that ‘tuberculosis can be controlled and eradicated simply by tuberculin skin testing alone,’ one sentence from the book, “No single tuberculin test or

Elsevier Science B.V.

354 Book review

interpretation key, or combination of tuberculin tests and interpretation keys, is suitable for all environments,” may be disconcerting to those with traditional thinking. It challenges the scientific community to have a broader, more informed view of this complicated disease. Another major strength of this book is the presentation of evidence and discussion of the continuum of the biology of M. bouis as the bacillus has adapted to its hosts, reservoirs, and environments, and has impacted the health of animals and human beings. Against a background of recent similar books which generally diminish the continuing importance of M. bouis as a zoonotic pathogen, this book’s historical and current scientific documentation should do much to change the prevailing view that Mycobacrerium tuberculosis is the only important pathogen in human tuberculosis.

This multiauthored book with 31 contributors is value-priced and will be a good reference text for casual and demanding readers given the breadth and depth of its coverage in most chapters. It will be particularly useful to professionals in applied epidemiology, especially in organized government tuberculosis regulatory programs, while also serving as an valuable reference for clinicians, livestock producers, and students in veterinary and human medicine, and for those involved in developing international trade and health policies.

GARRY ADAMS Department of Veterinary Pathobiology

College of Veterinary Medicine

Texas A & M University College Station EX 77843-4461 USA

Medical herpetology: amphibians and reptiles

Medical Herpetology: Amphibians and Reptiles - Their Influence on, and Relationship

to, Human Medicine. Steve Grenard, Reptile & Amphibian Magazine, NG Publishing Inc., Pottsville, PA, USA, 1994, 160 pp., softcover, $19.95, ISBN 0-9641032-O-6.

As the subtitle of this book implies, the topics introduced and discussed cut a wide swathe across several investigative disciplines which include taxonomy, infectious disease, pharmacology, physiology, toxicology, oncology - with considerable emphasis on snakes, and the consequences of their bites and follow-up treatment. This seemingly ambitious undertaking by the author, Steven Grenard, a respiratory therapist, gave simultaneous hardship and pleasure for this reviewer. Hardship in that this reader, a microbiologist who dabbles with infectious diseases conveyed to humans by turtles and iguanas, is not expert in most disciplines covered by this text and certainly not in herpetology. The text was a pleasure as a consequence of becoming informed on virtually each page of this monograph.

Almost one-half is devoted to snakes; their taxonomy, venoms, physiology of envenomation, antivenoms, treatment protocols following envenomation - all of which