Essentials of Disease in Wild Animals

The interrelationship between wild animal, domestic animals andhuman health is appreciated now more than ever before. This isbecause of the recognition of the involvement of wild animals indiseases of humans and domestic animals, the impact of disease onwildlife management and conservation biology, recognition of newforms of environmental contamination, and academic interest indisease as an ecological factor.
This is the first introductory level book about disease in wildanimals that deals with basic subjects such as the nature ofdisease, what causes disease, how disease is described andmeasured, how diseases spread and persist and the effects ofdisease on individual animals and populations. In contrast toauthors of many other veterinary books, Gary A. Wobeser takes amore general approach to health in wild animals, recognizing thatdisease is one ecological factor among many and that disease cannever be considered satisfactorily in isolation. Rather than focuson individual causative agents and their effect on the individualanimal, the emphasis is on why disease occurred, and on the complexinteractions that occur among disease agents, the environment andhost populations.
Written by a leading researcher in wildlife diseases, this bookwill fill a knowledge gap for those called to work with disease inwild animals who lack experience or training in the generalfeatures of disease as they relate to wild animals. Veterinarians,ecologists, wildlife biologists, population biologists and publichealth workers will find this book invaluable.