producers will be of fundamental importance by pro-viding the facilities to generate powerful databases
containing collections of trial data supplied by different
sources nationwide, and by sharing their own data. It
is reasonable to believe that there is a long way to go
but the work of Dr. Seifi and his colleagues appears to
be showing the way.
Homayoun Shams
Instructor of Microbiology and Immunology
Center for Pulmonary and
Infectious Diseases Control (CPIDC)
University of Texas Health Center at Tyler
11937 US Highway 271
Tyler, TX 75708-3154, USA
E-mail address: [email protected]
References
Goff, J.P., Horst, R.L., 1998. Use of hydrochloric acid as a source of
anions for prevention of milk fever. Journal of Dairy Science 81,
2874–2880.
Houe, H., Ostergaard, S., Thilsing-Hansen, T., Jorgensen, R.J.,
Larsen, T., Sorensen, J.T., Agger, J.F., Blom, J.Y., 2001. Acta
Veterinaria Scandinavia 42, 1–29.
Jardon, P.W., 1995. Using urine pH to monitor anionic salt programs.
Compendium on Continuing Education for the Practicing Veter-
inarian 17, 860–862.
Phillippo, M., Reid, G.W., Nevison, I.M., 1994. Parturient hypocalca-
emia in dairy cows: effect of dietary acidity on plasma minerals and
calciotrophic hormones.Research inVeterinaryScience 56, 303–309.
Seifi, H.A., Mohri, M., Kalamati Zadeh, J., 2004. Use of pre-partum
urine pH to predict the risk of milk fever in dairy cows. The
Veterinary Journal, doi:10.1016/S1090-0233(03)00114-X.
Thilsing-Hansen, T., Jorgensen, R.J., Ostergaard, S., 2002. Milk fever
control principles: a review. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavia 43, 1–19.
Book review
The Genetics of the Dog. A. Ruvinsky and J. Sampson,
576 pages, hardback, £85, Wallingford, Oxon, CABIPublishing. 2001. ISBN 0851995209.
Canine genetics is of both specific and general interest
to veterinarians. Specifically, veterinarians need to be able
to diagnose genetic disease and offer advice with respect to
breeding programs. Increasingly, to be able to carry out
these tasks successfully the veterinarian also needs to un-
derstand and keep abreast of the advances in moleculargenetics and genomics. Generally, there is much interest in
the geneticsof dogs probablyowing to two factsmentioned
on several occasions throughout this book. Namely, that
the dog is the most phenotypically diverse of all mammals,
and that it is the oldest of our domesticated species.
The book is written with a broad audience in mind,
not just veterinarians, and sets out to cover ‘‘all major
directions in dog genetics’’. It is the fifth book in a serieson mammalian genetics published by CAB International
that follow a similar remit. The editors have recruited an
impressive array of authors from around the world to
ensure that the publication is as comprehensive as pos-
sible. Topics covered include everything from phyloge-
netics to the genetics of domestication to developmental
genetics to dog genetic data used in forensic science.
Like many books that compile chapters from a largenumber of authors the quality and style is quite variable.
Many of the chapters of particular relevance to veteri-
narians are very well written and useful. Examples
include those on coat colour, molecular genetics, cyto-
genetics, hip dysplasia, developmental genetics, and ge-netic aspects of disease. The chapter on pedigree analysis
and genetic testing was well written but was frustrating
in that it lacked many specifics that would enable a
veterinarian to perform a pedigree analysis. The same
criticism could be levelled at the chapter on canine blood
groups; that is, while being informative it was not as
practical or as applied as a veterinarian would require.
The immunogenetics chapter was somewhat longwindedand would have benefited by the use of diagrams.
If there is a general criticism of this book it is that more
use could have been made of diagrams and a number of
the chapters could have beenmore succinct. Finally, while
interesting, the chapter discussing experiments in canine
domestication was too long, confusing, poorly written (or
translated) having, it would seem by-passed the editors.
In summary, this book sets out with the bold aim tocover all of canine genetics. It succeeds but with vari-
ability in quality of presentation and usefulness of the
information contained within its chapters. It would,
however, be a good first stop for veterinarians interested
in any aspect of canine genetics.
Ian HughesHead Immunogenetics Unit
School of Veterinary Science, University of Queensland
St. Lucia 4072, Australia
E-mail address: [email protected]
doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2003.10.011
Guest editorial / The Veterinary Journal 167 (2004) 222–223 223
Recommended
