Book excerpt: Sure to be the veterinary student's favourite lab partner, this handy, easy-to-follow manual presents basic information about isolating and identifying fungi in the veterinary mycology laboratory. The authors, all teachers with years of experience in veterinary diagnostic microbiology, developed this handbook in the classroom and the laboratory. Their efforts reflect the real problems and situations that practising veterinarians encounter. Intended for use in conjunction with a comprehensive textbook, the manual offers guidelines for the collection and submission of specimens for fungal identification, outlining different procedures for cutaneous, subcutaneous, systemic, aquatic, and other common and opportunistic mycoses. It discusses the clinical syndromes, general diagnostic procedures, characteristics, and treatment of fungal agents of veterinary significance. The photographs, showing typical features of common disease-causing fungi, will enable students to identify these organisms in cultures and clinical samples. Clear and systematic in its approach, this manual will prove an indispensable companion to veterinarians as well as veterinary students.