Health of Dairy Cattle, The

NACTA Journal, Dec 2002 by Wattiaux, Michel A

The Health of Dairy Cattle, by A.H. Andrews, Blackwell Science, 2000, 359 pp Hard-cover, $92.95.

As stated in the preface, "the aim of this book is to provide a practical guide to maintaining or improving the health of dairy cattle from birth until they leave the dairy herd." The book's primary audience is the practicing veterinarians of the United Kingdom, but the principles presented are assumed to be universal. Beyond a short preface, the potential reader is provided only with scanty information regarding the book's content; the "Contents" section is very brief and the authors were inconsistent in using "Introduction" and "Conclusion" sections in their writing.

In my view, The Health of Dairy Cattle is a compilation of twelve chapters, about two-thirds of which deals directly with animal health and management issues as applicable to production systems found in temperate climates (calf and heifer health, cow metabolic diseases, lameness and mastitis) with the remaining third of the book providing background and justifications from related disciplines (nutrition, physiology, engineering and economics.)

As is true of edited books, the multiplicity of authors allows for an in-depth treatment of each topic. It also means that each author brings his own approach to treating and presenting the topic at hand. To create an interwoven series of chapters, an editor must be careful in selecting and directing each author towards a common goal. Unfortunately, it seems that some of the authors were captives of their own writing style, and were bound to the specific (veterinary) audience they are used to address. For a knowledgeable reader, the differences in prior knowledge implicitly assumed by the authors are of no concern. Actually those differences bring about changes in pace and a variety of approaches from one chapter to the next. Yet readers are often left on their own to bridge the content of related chapters. Thus for a novice reader, the book may fall short of its promise because it may appear as a puzzling juxtaposition of somewhat unrelated topics.

To its credit, the book overflows with practical recommendations for "best management practices" related to good nutrition, health (disease prevention, vaccination and treatment) and milk quality. I was particularly attracted to the sections on parasitism and to the case studies that illustrate the complexity and the multi-faceted approach required to maintain productive and reproductive health in modern dairy systems.

Although the book introduces important emerging issues such as "Genetics of Disease Resistance" and on-farm "Disease Security" (also referred to as biosecurity), some of the chapters more germane to dairy production could have benefited from a more thorough treatment of emerging technologies (e.g., synchronized ovulation, total mixed ration and building design). Thus, this text may not fit into any one course in a college curriculum, but some of its chapters would serve well as a background reading for a variety of courses in a dairy science or preveterinary curriculum.

In short, for those with a background in dairy cattle husbandry (management), the book is a wonderful opportunity to learn from the world of the veterinarians, as they approach their work from a holistic perspective. I would encourage the potential reader not to consider the European context as a drawback, but rather as an example of an integrated approach to the management of dairy cattle health.

Michel A. Wattiaux

Assistant Professor

Dairy Systems Management

Department of Dairy Science

University of Wisconsin-Madison.