Mohr U Carlton WW Dungworth DL Benjamin SA Capen CC Hahn FF:

Pathobiology of the Aging Dog, Ames, IA, International Life Sciences Institute, Iowa State University Press, 2001 ($599.95).

Few individuals would belittle the importance of the dog, not only as a companion animal species, but also for clinical, toxicological, and surgical research. Setting aside the vast literature on aging rodents, the dog is perhaps the best-characterized species in the science of veterinary pathology. Many veterinary textbooks address diseases and lesions of dogs along with the other domestic animals, but few are focused on the natural diseases of the dog and much less so on the experimental diseases of this species. The textbook Pathobiology of the Aging Dog now fills this void. This two-volume work is designed in a systems approach to cover general diseases and pathology of the dog, but the substance of this text is its basis in research. Indeed, the authors provide not only summary literature reviews on a large number of diseases, but they often provide clinical or biomedical research data on many of these conditions and relate these data comparatively to other species, including man. Most chapters cover aspects of normal and abnormal morphology, pathophysiology, and the biochemistry of many conditions. Supporting figures, photography, and electron micrographs in most chapters are high quality and helpful. Professionals involved in clinical veterinary medicine, clinical veterinary pathology, or medical research involving the canine species would find these volumes useful for evaluating natural canine disease or for providing a frame of reference for lesions that may be induced in the course of research.