This volume covers the fields of origin, evolution and phylogenesis from prokaryotic to eukaryotic cells. The eminent authors, experts in their fields, review the three kingdoms of life (Archea, Eubacteria and Eukarya) from molecular evolutionary levels to ecological aspects in enigmatic habitats, including general reviews of puzzling pro-and eukaryotic organisms and their domains. We discuss dry habitats, thermophilic (cells in hot springs and undersea thermal vents up to 110AC), psychrophilic (cryophiles) and halophilic (high salt concentrations) niches which among the harshest conditions found on Earth where microbial life is frequently detected. Some chapters deal with the organisms which grow in extreme pH conditions (acidity vs. alkalinity), and under hydrostatic pressure in the deep sea, and microbial growth on petroleum. Other contributors present their research on aerobiology and microbes growing in various gases and various levels of radiation, including cellular morphological modification in these extremophilic microbes. This volume also includes the symbiotic association between two or more organisms on the endocellular and exocellular levels. Finally one paper identifies the extremophiles as candidates for exobiology. This is a valuable comprehensive volume in English that covers most of the extremophiles in a new light with current research data. Audience: Students, lecturers and researchers; scholars in the fields of biology, evolutionary biology and chemistry, and other evolutionary fields, and the intelligent layman.

Voltage-gated calcium channels are critical regulators of cytoplasmic levels of calcium, the universal signaling ion. As such, calcium channels trigger a wide range of cellular functions, from muscle contraction to neurotransmitter secretion, and are important players in human disease. Prominent in the nervous, cardiovascular, and endocrine systems, members of the calcium channel family are targets for existing antihypertensive and anticonvulsant drugs. In addition, they are emerging targets for drugs to treat an extraordinarily diverse group of disorders, including pain, cerebral ischemia, cardiac arrhythmia, and migraine. This book reviews the compounds that target individual calcium channel subtypes and the cellular and behavioral functions governed by each different channel. It contains information for basic scientists using calcium channel antagonists as experimental tools, for behavioralists studying animal models of human disease, and for pharmaceutical scientists interested in creating the next generation of calcium channel-targeted drugs. Several factors make an entire book on calcium channel pharmacology timely.

This unique book provides a comprehensive and comparative guide to the immune systems of major vertebrate species, including domestic and wild animals of veterinary or medical interest, fish and amphibia. Data in this essential reference work has been compiled by world-renowned editors and an international group of authors. For each species, the information is presented in a structured 'user-friendly' format allowing easy cross reference and comparison between the various species.
This book will be considered the definitive reference work on vertebrate immunology and will be essential for scientists and professionals working in Immunology, Vaccinology or with Animal Models, for students of Veterinary or Human Medicine, Biology and researchers in Comparative Medicine and Physiology.
Each section, devoted to a major animal group covers:
* Lymphoid organs and their anatomical disposition
* Leukocytes and their markers
* Leukocyte traffic and associated molecules
* Cytokines
* T cell receptors
* Immunoglobulins
* MHC antigens
* Ontogeny of the immune system
* Passive transfer of immunity
* Neonatal immune responses
* Non-specific immunity
* Complement system
* Mucosal immunity
* Immunodeficiencies
* Tumours of the immune system
* Autoimmunity

This book follows a veterinarian through the work day, and describes the occupation and what the job requires.

Season two of the hit TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small is now showing on Channel 5, featuring Sam West as Siegfried Farnon. 'James Herriot's books have had a lasting and profound effect on my life' Amanda Owen This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen. To young James Herriot, fresh out of veterinary college, Yorkshire appears to offer an idyllic pocket of rural life in a rapidly changing world. But even life in the sleepy village of Darrowby has its challenges: from his new colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, to herds of semi-feral cattle and gruff farmers with incomprehensible accents. Heart-breaking and hilarious in equal measure, If Only They Could Talk is the first volume of classic memoirs which chronicle James Herriot's first years as country vet in the 1930's. This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of If Only They Could Talk features an afterword by Yorkshire Shepherdess and author Amanda Owen. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

Birds and reptiles have long fascinated investigators studying hearing and the auditory system. The highly evolved auditory inner ear of birds and reptiles shares many characteristics with the ear of mammals. Thus, the two groups are essential in understanding the form and function of the vertebrate and mammalian auditory systems. Comparative Hearing: Birds and Reptiles covers the broad range of our knowledge of hearing and acoustic communication in both groups of vertebrates. This volume addresses the many similarities in their auditory systems, as well as the known significant differences about hearing in the two groups.

In a sense, propionic acid bacteria are domesticated bacteria. They might have been used for cheese making as early as 9000 years Be. In the last 40 years their pmctical uses have expanded to include vitamin B12 and propionic acid production, bread baking, starters for ensilage and some pharmaceutical prepamtions. New prospects for their future uses are also emerging, based on the useful properties recently discovered. This monograph is the result of many years of investigating propioni bacteria by the faculty, staff and postgraduate students in the Department of Microbiology at the Moscow State University, as well as a number of scientists in other countries. The encouragement and various contributions of my colleagues has made this book possible, which might as well be entitled "My life with propionic acid bacteria," since these bacteria were the subject of our investigations for more than 40 years. I hope that this book will be of interest not only to scientists of biological specialties, but also to those associated with industrial firms and medical institutions. L.l. Vorobjeva IX Acknowledgements Writing a monograph is impossible without the cooperation of many people I am very grateful to all my postgraduate students - thirty of them - who work at present not only in Russia, but also in various other countries, including Canada, Cuba, Egypt, India, Iran and Vietnam. Many thanks are due to my colleagues who shared my scientific interests and enthusiasm in experimental research. Special thanks are to N. Baranova, E. lordan, N."

As aquaculture continues to expand there is a need for greater knowledge of medicinal treatments both for the prevention and treatment of disease and for the economic husbandry of fish. This book, the first of its kind, is written for a worldwide readership. It is a reference manual for anyone involved in the selection of medicines for administration to fish. It will also be useful to administrators concerned with the legal control of aquaculture. The first part covers issues which affect all medicine's methods of administering drugs to fish, the various aspects of safety and the relevant legislation in countries with important aquacultural industries. Subsequent parts review the range of available medicinal substances and present current knowledge of the pharmacology and methods of use for each. Particular attention is given to safety issues - for the fish, for the person administering the medicine, for the consumer of medicated fish and for the environment.

Equine Color Genetics, Fourth Edition presents a detailed examination of the color variation in horses and donkeys and the genetic mechanisms that produce color variations. * Thoroughly covers the basic colors in horses, including bay, chestnut, black, and brown * Details the genetic basis of the colors built from the basic coat color, including dilutions and white patterning * Provides an explanation of genetic mechanisms that determine coat color * Presents a thorough revision and update, including new advances in molecular genetics, biochemistry, molecular mechanisms, genetic loci, coat colors before domestication, and more * Offers a new introduction describing the principles of genetics and genomics research to help outline how knowledge is discovered and to assist the reader in understanding concepts covered in the book

This book is a direct result of a symposium held in December 1988, in Washington, DC, honoring Professor Emeritus Miodrag Ristic for his contributions to rickettsial disease research, in general, and, to ehrlichiosis, in particular. He and his colleagues in the United States Army Medical Research Unit brought to the world's attention an epidemic of ehrlichiosis, that occurred in German shepherd dogs during the Vietnam War. The group was able to culture the microorganism Ehrlichia canis and to fulfill Koch's postulates. They eventually developed an indirect immunofluorescent antibody (IFA) test which has been adopted internationally. The same group joined a national effort to decipher another mysterious disease known as Potomac horse fever (PHF). They used the same technology developed by Nyindo in Dr. Ristic's laboratory to isolate, characterize, and again develop a similar IFA test for PHF. Today PHF has been diagnosed, at least serologically, practically across the entire United States, in some provinces of Canada, and reports are beginning to trickle in of its occurrence in European countries. Thus, the etiologic agent of PHF, now named after Professor Ristic, Ehrlichia risticii, historically places this scientist side by side with the other 2 "R's", i. e. , Ricketts and da Rochalima. Ehrlichiosis is not limited to domestic animals. Sennetsu rickettsiosis, long known by Japanese scientists as an imitator of "infectious mononucleosis," was subsequently shown to be caused by an ehrlichial agent, through collaborative efforts among the United States Army, the University of Illinois, and Dr.

In spite of the availability of modern broad-spectrum anthelmintic drugs, the prevention and control of helminth zoonoses remain a challenge to human and veterinary parasitologists and to physicians and veterina- rians working on the field. Although the life cycles of most helminths of zoonotic importance are well known, there are still major gaps in our knowledge especially in the fields of epidemiology, diagnosis and treat- ment The International Colloquium on Helminth Zoonoses held at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, 11-12 December 1986, laid emphasis on more recent advances made in the control and epidemiology of these zoonotic diseases. The disease complexes echinococcosis/hydatidosis, taeniasis/cysticercosis and the larva migrans-syndrome were dealth with in considerable detail. In the first chapter the phenomenon of strain variation in Echinococcus spp. is examined in the light of newer findings. The progress made in recent years towards a more specific diagnosis and drug targeting in hydatidosis is reported. In the second chapter recent advances in immunisation and treatment of cysticercosis are dealt with. The possibili- ty of the existence of strain differences in Taenia saginata is also dis- cussed. The third chapter is devoted to trematode zoonoses with particular reference to the situation in South-east Asia, Senegal (schistosomiasis) and Liberia (paragonimiasis). In the last chapter the larva migrans- syndrome is treated in detail with special attention to its etiology and and diagnosis. Reports on lesser known nematode zoonoses like mammomono- gamosis and oesophagostomiasis are included.

Global warming and globalization are the buzzwords of our time. They have nearly reached a religious status and those who deny their existence are considered modern heretics. Nevertheless, the earth has become an overcrowded village, traversable within a single day. Thus it is hardly surprising that besides persons and goods also agents of disease are easily transported daily from one end of the world to the other, threatening the health and lives of billions of humans and their animals. Agents of diseases (prions, viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites) are not only transmitted by body contact or direct exchange of bodily fluids, but also by means of vectors which belong to the groups of licking or blood-sucking arthropods (mites, ticks, insects) that live close to humans and their houses.

Without a doubt the recently accelerating globalization supports the import of agents of disease into countries where they never had been or where they had long since been eradicated, leading to a false sense of living on a safe island. These newly imported or reintroduced diseases called emerging diseases may lead to severe outbreaks in cases where the countries are not prepared to combat them, or in cases where viruses are introduced that cannot be controlled by medications or vaccines.

Arthropods are well known vectors for the spread of diseases. Thus their invasion from foreign countries and their spreading close to human dwellings must be blocked everywhere (in donor and receptor countries) using safe and effective measures.

This book presents reviews on examples of such arthropod-borne emerging diseases that lurk on the fringes of our crowded megacities. The following topics show that there is an ongoing invasion of potential vectors and that control measures must be used now in order to avoid disastrous outbreaks of mass diseases.

This book contains the contributions to a workshop on stress in farm animals held on April 17-18,1986 at the Pietersberg Con ference Centre Oosterbeek. The workshop was financed by the Commis sion of the European Communities from its budget for the coordina tion of Community Agricultural Research and the Agricultural Uni versity of Wageningen (The Netherlands). Its aim was to bring together experts from different disciplines all having in common that in one way or another they were involved in stress research. Such a multidisciplinary encounter should not only provide an interesting description of present day knowledge on stress, but also promote a more integrated view on stress phenomena as they occur in higher vertebrates. In the course of this workshop the following fields of research were related to stress: endocrinology, immunology, pathology, neurobiology, ethology and theoretical bio logy. Each of these relationships was introduce& by one speaker presenting a concise state of the art. The same relationship was elaborated by a second speaker implementing the available knowledge as far as possible to the farm animal situation. Therefore in this book each discipline is represented by a duo and introduced by some integrating remarks."

Most of the chapters of this book were written during 1987 which was the Diamond Jubilee year of the publication of the first reports of Newcastle disease in 1927. During the intervening years the nature of the Poultry Industry throughout the World has changed, or is in the process of changing, dramatically from one based on small village or farm flocks, frequently kept as a sideline, to an industry based on large flocks, sometimes consisting of hundreds of thousands of birds, run by multinational companies. To all these flocks, both large and small, Newcastle disease poses a considerable threat to their well-being and profitability and it is not unreasonable to state that hardly a single commercial flock of poultry is raised in the world without Newcastle disease having some effect due to actual disease, prophylactic vaccination or restrictions placed on rearing, movement, processing, sale or export of birds and products. In addition, recent years have produced developments in virology and associated biological technology which would have been unbelievable when Newcastle disease virus was first isolated. The economic importance of Newcastle disease virus and its use as a laboratory model has meant that major advances have been quickly applied to the field situation whenever possible and, as a result, a much fuller understanding, not only of the biochemistry and basic virology of the virus but also the ecology, epizootiology, antigenicity, immunology and other important aspects in the control of the disease has been achieved.

Season two of the hit TV adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small is now showing on Channel 5, featuring Sam West as Siegfried Farnon. 'James Herriot's books have had a lasting and profound effect on my life' Amanda Owen This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of the second volume in James Herriot's memoirs, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, features an afterword by actress Carol Drinkwater, who starred as Helen Herriot in the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small. It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet sees recently qualified vet James Herriot firmly ensconced in the sleepy Yorkshire village of Darrowby, and acclimatized to life with his unpredictable colleagues, brothers Siegfried and Tristan Farnon. But veterinary practice in the 1930s was never going to be easy, and there are challenges on the horizon, from persuading his clients to let him use his 'modern' equipment, to becoming an uncle to a pig called Nugent. Throw in his first encounters with Helen, the beautiful daughter of a local farmer, and this year looks to be as eventful as the last . . . This beautiful Macmillan Collector's Library edition of the second volume in James Herriot's memoirs, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, features an afterword by actress Carol Drinkwater, who starred as Helen Herriot in the BBC's All Creatures Great and Small. Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.

The 5th edition of Jubb, Kennedy, and Palmer's Pathology of Domestic Animals continues the long tradition of this classic set of volumes as the most comprehensive reference book published on the topic of pathology of the common domestic mammals, with emphasis on disease conditions of cattle and small ruminants, swine, horses, dogs and cats. Using a body systems approach, recognized authorities in their fields provide overviews of general characteristics of the system, reactions to insult, and disease conditions broken down by type of infectious or toxic insult affecting the anatomical subdivisions of each body system. Since the publication of the 4th edition in 1993, much has changed. Disease agents, such as Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) type 2, Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), Porcine circovirus 2, Hendra virus, and Leptospira spp., have emerged or further evolved. Molecular-based testing, including polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and in-situ hybridization, have allowed further understanding of pathogenesis of disease, and have greatly furthered our diagnostic capabilities. Updated content includes new and evolving pathogens and diagnostic techniques. Updated bibliographies give readers new entry points into the rapidly expanding literature on each subject. NEW! High-resolution color images clearly depict the diagnostic features of hundreds of conditions. NEW! Introduction to the Diagnostic Process chapter illustrates the whole animal perspective and details the approaches to systemic, multi-system, and polymicrobial disease. NEW! Coverage of camelids is now included in the reference's widened scope of species. NEW! Team of 30+ expert contributors offers the latest perspective on the continuum of issues in veterinary pathology. NEW! Expanded resources on the companion website include a variety of helpful tools such as full reference lists with entries linked to abstracts in Pub Med and bonus web-only figures. NEW! Full-color design improves the accessibility of the text.