The editors present, in an original hard-cover book of 387 pages, their focus on recent significant devel opments (international trends) in swine health and on emerging or reemerging viral infections of swine around the world. The format of the book resembles more a “current concepts” style of book rather than a virology textbook, being presented as a collection of short individual papers of generally 4 to 6 pages in length prepared by international contributors. The papers are assembled by groups or family of viruses and divided in chapters, such as swine influenza viruses, porcine paramyxoviruses (blue eye disease, Menangle virus infection, Nipah virus infection), African swine fever virus (ASF), classical swine fever virus (CSF), foot and mouth disease (FMD) and swine vesicular disease viruses, porcine herpesviruses (Aujeszky's disease), arboviral infections (eastern equine encephalomyelitis, Japanese encephalitis, West Nile encephalitis fever), porcine circovirus (PCV), and porcine nidoviruses (porcine coronaviruses and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus). Missing from this list of viruses was at least 1 review paper on swine hepatitis E virus that, I thought, would have been pertinent in the scope of this book. The format of short individual papers allows contributing authors to present interesting views that would not necessarily transpire in a virology textbook format. However, this sometimes results in some repetitive information from paper to paper within a given chapter, such as in the papers on swine influenza.
I thought that the introduction was most original and linked well with the theme of the book. This section includes papers on the benefit to risk issues and the measures to consider when attempting to reduce risks associated with trade and transport of pigs and pig products (semen, embryos, meat). It also includes descriptions of the roles and contributions of the international agencies involved in the control of contagious animal diseases, as well as reflections on the social impact of disease control and eradication, with examples of success and failure. I found these papers very well written, informative, and timely. I thought the inclusion of Web site addresses for the international agencies described was an excellent idea and an interesting piece of information for readers wanting to learn more about the roles of these agencies and their respective control programs.
In a global context, the chapters on the respective emerging or reemerging diseases and their viral causal agents were well presented, interesting, and informative for swine health specialists and professionals involved in swine disease control programs; they included several descriptions, updates, and accounts of recent outbreaks, as well as the eradication and control measures taken, and present well the state of knowledge, experiences gathered, and challenges that lie ahead regarding the different viral diseases discussed. Of particular interest, the Paramyxoviridae, which appear to have yielded over the years several novel pathogens in specific regions around the world (blue eye disease virus in Mexico, Nipah virus in Malaysia, and Menangle virus in Australia).
This book also illustrates very concretely, with accounts of recent outbreaks, how the well-known diseases, such as ASF, CSF, and FMD that have plagued swine industrial and subsistence farming are still around, still account for huge economic losses, and still pose numerous challenges for the future.
Historical and epidemiological situations, as well as the impacts and key actions of the eradication campaigns, for example of ASF in Cuba and Spain are summarized. Reviews of the experiences of Cuba, Mexico, and England following the reemergence of CSF are presented. There are also interesting papers on vaccination and on the use of molecular epi demiology and phylogenetic analysis for the tracking of CSF virus strains involved in outbreaks and for the tracing of origin and spread of the disease in different regions of the world; concise and informative papers on the recent FMD outbreaks in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the United Kingdom; and historical and current updates of Aujeszky's disease, as well as a paper on the recent identification of novel porcine gammaherpesviruses, with discussion of their pathogenic potential for animals and human xenotransplant recipients.
The chapter on arboviruses describes well the susceptibility or the potential role that pigs may have in certain arboviral infections (eastern equine encephalomyelitis, Japanese encephalitis, and West Nile encephalitis fever). The paper on Japanese encephalitis virus is particularly rich in information on this emerging virus.
Two chapters complete the book; 1 on PCV and 1 on nidoviruses. The papers on PCV give a good overview of the current knowledge in this area and of the questions that remain concerning, in particular, the role of PCV2 in postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS) and other conditions. A European perspective paper on PCV2/PMWS is presented; I thought a similar North American perspective paper would have been interesting to present, since impacts of infection on each side of the ocean appear to differ. The section on nidoviruses includes 1 paper on porcine coronaviruses that sum marizes quite well the current knowledge of diseases and the respective viruses involved. Also in this section, sev eral papers on porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV); the epidemiology, virology, diagnosis, immunity, and control aspects of the disease are addressed and give a good synopsis of the huge amount of scientific literature on PRRSV that has accumulated now for close to 15 years.
In summary, I thought this book was a very good source of current information on new, emerging, and reemerging viral infections in swine and should be of value for those involved in swine health in university, industry and government. It is a good investment for the library.