Preface
We usually think that rainy cities like Amsterdam do not provide optimal conditions for exotic animals. However, the trees in the centre are littered with flocks of loud green parrots, and in a bistro at the central station a giant cockatoo walks around freely.
In March 2015, we (Amir, Sybren, Jacques) drank a good Dutch beer and apparently got inspired by this unexpected “wildlife”. We noticed that there is not much recent literature on fungal infections in animals, and after some more beers we thought that an overview of emerging and epizootic infections might be appreciated. Paul joined us as a co-editor a few months later and a long process of writing and editing started, and soon we were happy to be supported by an excellent panel of authors of chapters.Fungi are relatively uncommon causes of disease in animals: the spectrum of fungal infections is much smaller than in the single host Homo sapiens. Yet animal hosts are much more exposed than humans to infectious propagules, both in husbandry and in natural ecosystems. For reasons that could not always be explained, an increasing number of recalcitrant fungal diseases in animals have emerged during the last decades, originating from a wide range of opportunistic and pathogenic fungi. With this book we aim to provide more insight into major epizootic and emerging mycoses in various animal groups, with speculations on fungal life cycles, epidemiology and evolution. Information on treatment options, antifungal use in veterinary practice, and emerging resistance is also included. The different chapters have been written by experts in the field, most of them being members of the Veterinary Mycology working group of ISHAM (International Society of Human and Animal Mycology). Inevitably the production of a multi-authored book takes a significant amount of time, and we were unable to cover all relevant fungi, and to include some recent developments in epidemiology and host resistance— underlining that natural processes of host-pathogen interaction may change and develop at a surprising speed.
The book addresses medical and veterinary mycologists, microbiologists, veterinarians, infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists, ecologists, public health scientists from academia and industry as well as graduate students, PhD students and postdocs in the field.
Bethesda, MD, USA Utrecht, The Netherlands Maisons-Alfort, France Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Amir (Seyedmojtaba) Seyedmousavi
G. Sybren de Hoog Jacques Guillot Paul E. Verweij