Preface to the Third Edition

The first and second editions of Goat Medicine were well received, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to produce a third edition. Since the second edition appeared in 2009, the global landscape for veterinary medicine and for goats has continued to change.

Goat numbers worldwide now exceed 1 billion, reflect­ing the ever-growing demand for goat products in the meat, dairy, and fiber sectors and the recognition that goats are versatile, resilient, and highly adaptable, making them an increasingly attractive form of hoofed livestock in regions where climate change is resulting in warmer, more arid conditions.

Climate change is also affecting global patterns of dis­ease, particularly vector-borne disease, as vector ranges expand in association with warming temperatures. This has implications for goats. Bluetongue, for example, which is transmitted by Culicoides midges, is now present in every continent except Antarctica. Its presence in Europe has been steadily expanding northward, affecting goats and other ruminant animals in countries where it had not pre­viously been noted. There are concerns that other serious vector-borne diseases of goats, notably Rift Valley fever, may eventually become established in Europe due to warming temperatures. Other diseases, such as leptospiro­sis, though already present, may become more common due to increased rainfall and associated flooding.

Around the time that the second edition of Goat Medicine was published, a single case of bovine spongiform enceph­alopathy (BSE) had been confirmed in a clinically normal goat at slaughter in France and it was unclear if BSE was going to emerge as an important disease in the species. However, since that report, countries throughout the European Union have conducted extensive slaughter sur­veillance in small ruminants, searching specifically for transmissible spongiform encephalopathies.

Another development of note since the last edition of Goat Medicine is the global eradication of rinderpest (cattle plague), announced in 2011 by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Goats were sus­ceptible to rinderpest and while they usually did not show clinical signs of the disease, rinderpest was an important differential diagnosis for the related morbillivirus disease, peste des petits ruminants (PPR), known in English as small ruminant plague. PPR occurs commonly in goats and sheep in the same regions where rinderpest occurred in cattle.

Following the successful eradication of rinderpest, the OIE and FAO in 2015 launched a global program for the eradication of PPR. The disease has been expanding across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for decades and causes significant morbidity and mortality in small ruminants. As such, PPR is a major constraint on the well-being of farmers and herders who depend on goats and sheep for their livelihood. The goal of the program is for PPR to be eradicated globally by 2030, which, like the eradication of rinderpest, would be a major achievement in the veteri­nary arena.

The growing problems of antimicrobial resistance and resistance to anthelmintics also have a significant impact on the health of goats and the practice of caprine medicine. It is increasingly evident that practitioners must advocate vigorously with their clients for improved management practices that will reduce the occurrence of infectious and parasitic diseases, and stress the importance of vaccination and other preventive measures so that when antibiotics and anthelmintics are truly required to protect goat health, they will be reliably efficacious.

The availability of information on goats, goat health, and goat disease continues to expand dramatically. On the posi­tive side, peer-reviewed publications on veterinary medi­cine are now readily available to anyone on the internet. On the negative side, the internet continues to be a major source of misinformation. As with past editions of this book, we have attempted to provide the most accurate, evidence-based information available on the diseases of goats, their diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and control. We have avoided whenever possible extrapolating informa­tion from other species, and we continue to strive to pro­vide definitive information that is specific to goats and supported by citations from the world's veterinary litera­ture, as well as our own expanded experience in dealing with goat diseases in various settings around the world.

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We intend this book primarily as a resource for veteri­nary practitioners, but believe that academic clinicians, veterinary students, veterinary technicians, regulatory veterinarians, researchers working with goats, animal sci­entists, extension agents, livestock development workers, and goat owners worldwide will also find it useful.

David M. Sherman, Paris, France Mary C. Smith, Ithaca, New York