Book Reviews

doi: 10.1053/tvjl.2001.0558, available online at

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The Biology of Animal Stress: Basic Principles and Implicationsfor Animal WelfareEds Moberg, G. and Mench, J. A. Wallingford, Oxon, CABIPublishing, 2000. 384 pp. £55 (hard) ISBN 0851993591

`Stress is a dangerous and useless word. It may seemuseful because it is a unifying concept, but it unifiesour ignorance rather than our knowledge'. Thisquotation by Zanchetti (1972) is contained in thisinformative book on animal stress. The difficultywith the word stress, as explained in a chapter byLadewig, is that if we describe all aversive responsesof animals as stress, all we are doing is putting asingle label on a wide range of biological eventsrather than clarifying and explaining the underlyingmechanisms. Selye's hypothesis that, regardless ofthe stressor, the body will respond in the same phy-siological manner is now regarded as an over-simplification. The late G.P. Moberg's introductorychapter expands upon his clear model of stress pro-posed in his 1985 book on Animal Stress (publishedby the American Physiological Society). Each chapterhas been written by different authors (mainly animalscientists) and they are essentially fully referencedreview articles on: the biological responses to stress(behavioural, neuroendocrine, metabolic and immu-nological), chronic stress; measurement of stress;responses to pain; control of behaviour, con-sequences of stress during development; geneticselection to reduce stress, human±animal interac-tions affecting handling and fear responses, stress infish, primates and zoo animals (examples of stressresponses in farm animals are provided in many ofthe chapters), and stress concepts in the care andregulation of laboratory animals.

The biology of stress is a complex topic. It includesmany aspects such as: how an animal perceives a sti-mulus as a threat (the stressor); the factors that affecthow an animal responds to this perceived threat; thetypes of responses available to the animal (stressresponses) and the consequences or potential con-sequences to the physical and/or psychological well-being of the animal. The difficulty in writing abook onanimal stress is that the published literature is enor-mous, there is no consistent use of terminology, it isnecessary to integrate neuroendocrine andbehavioural/psychological concepts and there aremajor difficulties in measuring and interpretingresponses to stressors. The following examples showhow this book assists in clarifying the topic, but it doesnot resolve all outstanding issues. Moberg considersstress to be a `biological response elicited when anindividual perceives a threat to its homeostasis.' Thethreat or stimulus is the stressor. When the stressresponse threatens the animal's welfare it is con-sidered to experience `distress'. Of interest is the wayin which Moberg uses the term `distress'. It is used todescribe a stress response that involves a significantbiological cost to the animal, e.g. a disturbance inovulation. By contrast, Ewbank (in Moberg's earlierbook), Mellor and others (in the current book) andanimalwelfare legislationhaveusedtheterm`distress'to indicate stress responses that probably involve anunpleasant psychological internal state (suffering)that is accompanied by overt behavioural signs.

Readers interested in evaluating animal welfareand those concerned with the potential effects ofstress responses on reproduction, productivity,behaviour, handling and immunocompetence willfind this book useful.

M. S. COCKRAM

The Veterinary Journal 2002, 164, 77±82

doi: 10.1053/tvjl.2000.0554, available online at

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The Health of Dairy Cattle

Ed. Andrews, A. H. Oxford, Blackwell Science, 2000.368pp. £59.50 (hard) ISBN 063204103X

This book of 12 chapters, written by 14 authorsincluding the editor, features the major topics onewould expect to find on a check-list for a herd health

visit ± fertility, mastitis, lameness, nutrition, calf andheifer rearing, buildings and economics. It alsoincludes some welcome extra subjects ± mammarygland function, genetics of disease resistance anddisease security. The list of authors reads like a Who'sWho of the UK veterinary establishment.

78 BOOK REVIEWS

John Hughes is an Honorary Associate of theRoyal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and manyveterinary surgeons, not to mention dairy farmersand dairy cows, have had reason to be grateful for hisinsights. If you want to know why many cubicles areuncomfortable, and how to improve them, thischapter is for you. Similarly, John describes thepitfalls of straw yards and how to avoid them.During the working of this review we are in themiddle of a UK season of rain, more rain, and stillmore rain, and it is timely that he describes how toconstruct cow tracks that drain well and are kind tocows' feet.

Another Hon. Assoc. RCVS, Dick Esslemont,writes as he often does with Mohamed Kossaibati.Together they have produced many invaluable dis-tillations of results from the DAISY recording system.They explain the mysteries of quotas, and of farmeconomics. Times change, and the table showing atypical farm producing 5300 L at 24 p/L (despite anote saying that prices are now 19 p/L) evokes nos-talgia. The chapter includes valuable targets: if thetop 25% of herds can achieve a first service preg-nancy rate of 58% and a culling rate for failure toconceive of 5%, for example, we can suggest that ourclients might aim for similar figures.

A brief chapter by Chris Knight of the HannahResearch Institute on mammary gland functioncontains much practical advice. If farmers rear hei-fers too fast (above 0.7 kg/day) between 100 and300 kg bodyweight, they produce more fat and less

doi: 10.1053/tvjl.2001.0580, available online at

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Diseases of Sheep, 3rd Edn.Eds. Martin, W. B. and Aitken, I.D. Oxford, BlackwellScience, 2000. 528 pp. £79.50 (hard) ISBN 0632051396

When viewed in context with its two predecessors,the 3rd edition of this book goes a long way towardsaffirming the correctness of the old adage about`practice making perfect'. As in earlier editions, thecore of the book provides an authoritative and sys-tematic account of the diseases affecting sheep. Newsections give additional information about sheepwelfare, reproductive physiology and regional healthproblems encountered in the major sheep-raisingcountries of the world. In total, nearly 70 expertsfrom around the world contributed to the book,either revising and updating chapters carried overfrom earlier editions, or writing new chapters. The

secretory tissue in the udder. His clear explanationof the effects of growth hormones (and bovinesomatotrophin [bST] in particular) is less applicableat present in Europe. His finding that frequentmilking increases the long-term persistency of lacta-tion is, however, applicable to farmers who areadopting robotic milking machines. Even morewidely applicable is the treatment of mastitis by largedoses of oxytocin. This might become an alternativeto antibiotics for the growing number of dairyfarmers who are trying to help reduce the totalamount of antibiotic introduced into the environ-ment. Other chapters deliver what you would expectfrom such well-known authors as Roger Blowey, JimKelly, David Whitaker, David Noakes, David Weaver,Frank Dodd and James Booth, Roger Spooner, andLaurence Gibson.

In a second edition, it would be helpful to have aclearer idea of the intended readership. The bookwould benefit from tighter editing of some chapterswith those readers in mind, and elimination of somerepetition. Veterinary surgeons would appreciate acontribution from a member of the profession who isselling herd health advice to farmers. We must beconcerned that farm animal practice has an uncer-tain future unless farmers develop the habit ofpaying vets for advice. Finally, we are getting used tocolour pictures, which are now much cheaper, andpictures of foot lesions or corpora lutea for exampleare not the same in black and white.

BOB WARD

expanded scope of the 3rd edition, combined withthe detailed nature of the contents, makes this bookthe most comprehensive single reference available inits field.

Part I (Introduction) describes the importance ofsheep as a global livestock resource and then focuseson several important aspects of sheep welfare, deal-ing in turn with standards and practices, castration,tail docking and transportation. Parts II and III dealwith the physiology and diseases of the reproductivesystem. Taken together, the 16 chapters in these twoparts provide a comprehensive coverage of topicssuch as reproductive cycles, ewe and ram manage-ment, infertility, the perinatal period, obstetricalproblems and neonatal conditions as well as cover-ing the major infectious diseases of the reproductivesystem such as mastitis, chlamydial abortion,