ABSTRACT
I was delighted by the success of the first edition of Clinical Immunology of the Dog and Cat, which clearly filled a niche in the veterinary textbook market and was eventually translated into six additional languages. Immunology, however, is probably the fastest moving of the sciences and, since the publication of the first edition in 1999, there have been numerous advances that readily justify the production of this second edition. In the area of fundamental immunology there has been a renewed focus on the importance of the innate immune system, with a realization that events at this level of antigen recognition determine the nature of the ensuing adaptive immune response. Additionally, there has been recent clarification of the role of regulatory (suppressor) T lymphocytes in the immune response and identification of several functional subsets of these cells. In parallel with this research has been an explosion of knowledge in the field of companion animal immunology, largely driven by the molecular revolution, which in turn is underpinned by publication of the canine (and, soon, the feline) genome. Techniques have been developed that have allowed us to explore and quantify the role of key immunological molecules in canine and feline immune responses, and this technology has rapidly translated to the clinical diagnostic labora tory with the advent of PCR-based tests for the diagnosis of infection or detection of clonality of neoplastic lymphoid populations. These advances are all discussed within this second edition.
