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Through the ages, rabies has exemplified the danger of diseases that transfer from wild animals to humans and their domestic stock. In South Africa, rabies has been on the rise since the latter part of the twentieth century despite the availability of postexposurevaccines and regular inoculation campaigns for dogs.InMad Dogs and Meerkats: A History of Resurgent Rabies in Southern Africa,Karen Brownlinks the increase of rabies to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her study shows that the most afflictedregions of South Africa have seen a dangerous rise in feral dog populations as people lack the education, means, or will to care for their pets or take them to inoculation centers. Most victims are poor black children. Ineffective disease control, which in part depends on management policies in neighboring states and the diminished medical and veterinary infrastructures in Zimbabwe, has exacerbated the problem.This highly readable book is the first study of rabies in Africa, tracing its history in South Africa and neighboring states from 1800 to the present and showing how environmental and economicchanges brought about by European colonialism and global trade have had long-term effects.Mad Dogs and Meerkatsis recommended for public health policy makers and anyone interested in human-animal relations and how societies and governmentshave reacted to one of the world's most feared diseases.

Two variants of rabies virus (RABV) currently circulate in southern Africa: canid RABV, mainly associated with dogs, jackals, and bat-eared foxes, and mongoose RABV. To investigate the evolutionary dynamics of these variants, we performed coalescent-based analyses of the G-L inter-genic region, allowing for rate variation among viral lineages through the use of a relaxed molecular clock. This revealed that mongoose RABV is evolving more slowly than canid RABV, with mean evolutionary rates of 0.826 and 1.676 x 10(-3) nucleotide substitutions per site, per year, respectively. Additionally, mongoose RABV exhibits older genetic diversity than canid RABV, with common ancestors dating to 73 and 30 years, respectively, and while mongoose RABV has experienced exponential population growth over its evolutionary history in Africa, populations of canid RABV have maintained a constant size. Hence, despite circulating in the same geographic region, these two variants of RABV exhibit striking differences in evolutionary dynamics which are likely to reflect differences in their underlying ecology.

Members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) cause tuberculosis (TB) in both animals and humans. In this article, three animal-adapted MTC strains that are endemic to the southern African subregion – that is, Mycobacterium suricattae, Mycobacterium mungi, and the dassie bacillus – are reviewed with a focus on clinical and pathological presentations, geographic distribution, genotyping methods, diagnostic tools and evolution. Moreover, factors influencing the transmission and establishment of TB pathogens in novel host populations, including ecological, immunological and genetic factors of both the host and pathogen, are discussed. The risks associated with these infections are currently unknown and further studies will be required for greater understanding of this disease in the context of the southern African ecosystem.Keywords: dassie bacillus; ecology; evolution; host jump; Mycobacterium mungi; Mycobacterium suricattae; Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex; phylogeny

\"In Mad Dogs and Meerkats, Karen Brown links the increase of rabies in Southern Africa to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Her study shows that the most afflicted regions of South Africa have seen a dangerous rise in feral dog populations as people lack the education, means, or will to care for their pets or take them to inoculation centers. Ineffective disease control, which in part depends on management policies in neighboring states, has exacerbated the problem. The book traces the history of rabies in South Africa and neighboring states from 1800 to the present and shows how environmental and economic changes brought about by European colonialism and global trade have had long-term effects\"--Provided by publisher.