1.-Apsirtos'Apsirtos', considered in the Western world from the Greeks, the "father of Veterinary Medicine."

Apsirtos was born in the year 300 AD in Clazômeras, the Aegean coastal city on the western coast of Asia Minor. He studied medicine in Alexandria, later becoming, chief veterinary officer of the army of Constantine the Great, during the war against the peoples Samart the Danube, between 332 and 334. After the war, he practiced the art of healing in animals and Peruza Nicomedia, the cities of Asia, creating a school hipiatras. Among the issues described by Apsirtos, deserve mention glanders, pulmonary emphysema, tetanus, cramps and fractures, and descriptions of bloodletting with its indications and modalities, potions and ointments. His work reveals, finally, the domain knowledge about the prevailing practice at the time hipiátrica.

2.-Bernhard Lauritz Frederik BangBernhard Lauritz Frederik Bang (June 7, 1848 Sorø - June 22, 1932 Copenhagen), was a Danish veterinarian. Discovered Brucella abortus in 1897, which came to be known as Bang's bacillus. Bang's bacillus was the cause of the contagious Bang's disease (now known as Brucellosis) which can cause pregnant cattle to abort, and causes undulant fever in humans.

Bang was awarded his M.D. in 1880 and began teaching at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark in Copenhagen. He later became the director of the College. Bang was a veterinary adviser to the Danish government.

For his contributions to veterinary medicine, he received an honorary doctorate from the Veterinary College of Utrecht in 1921.

Bang is known for his work on:

development of a control for bovine tuberculosis research on smallpox vaccination

research on animal bacillary disease

3.-Claude BourgelatClaude Bourgelat (March 27, 1712 – January 3, 1779) was a French veterinary surgeon.

Bourgelat was born at Lyon. He was the founder of veterinary colleges at Lyon in 1762, as well as an authority on horse management, and often consulted on the matter. Other dates claimed for the establishment of the Lyon College, the first veterinary school in the world, are 1760 and 1761.

"Bourgelat, a French barrister, observing that certain maladies were devastating the French herds, forsook the bar and devoted his time in seeking out a remedy for the then pest, which resulted in his founding a veterinary college in Lyon in 1760, from which establishment he despatched students, with weapons in their hands all-necessary for combating disease by science with practice; and in a short time from this period, the plague was stayed and the health of stock restored, through the assistance rendered to agriculture by veterinary science and art."[1] The plague to which Lupton referred was cattle plague, also commonly known by its German name, Rinderpest.

He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Bourgelat also contributed to Diderot and d'Alambert's Encyclopédie.

Works

L'art vétérinaire (1761)

4.-Augustine ColombritaAugustine Colombrita or Columbro (San Severo, around the middle of the fifteenth century - was one ...), Italian zoologist and veterinarian.

Leaving San Severo at a young age, he moved to Venice, where he was a surgeon and taught human surgery. Charles V called him to him as court physician, but there was little Colombrita, before returning to Venice, then moving to Naples in the service of Ferdinand II of Aragon.

The reputation of Colombrita depends principally on the work of manischalcia (Naples, 1490), an important book that came in a few years, six editions and was much appreciated throughout Europe, particularly Germany. Many were the scientific merits of Colombrita, which is one of the fathers of modern veterinary medicine, these include fundamental contributions to the anatomy animal (as the first real anatomical description of the ox and horse), the discovery of important disease and the equine and bovine innovative practice in some surgical procedures.

5.-Robin CoombsRobert Royston Amos ("Robin") Coombs, (9 January 1921 – 25 February 2006), was a British immunologist, co-discoverer of the Coombs test (1945) used for detecting antibodies in various clinical scenarios, such as Rh disease and blood transfusion.

Biography

He was born in London and studied veterinary medicine at Edinburgh University. In 1943 he went up to King's College, Cambridge where he commenced work on a doctorate, which he gained in 1947. Before finishing his doctorate, he developed and published methods to detect antibodies with Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Rob Race in 1945.[1]. This, his first discovery is the test now referred to as the Coombs test, which according to the legend he first devised while travelling on the train.[2]

Coombs became a professor and researcher at the Department of Pathology of University of Cambridge, becoming a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and a founder of its Division of Immunology. He was appointed the fourth Quick Professor of Biology in 1966 and continued to work at Cambridge University until 1988[2]

He received honorary doctoral degrees by the University of Guelph, Canada, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom (1965), a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.

He was married to Anne Blomfield, his first graduate student. They had a son and a daughter.[2]

Works

The Coombs test, which he developed and published together with Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Rob Race in 1945, has formed the base of a large number of laboratory investigations in the fields of hematology and immunology[1][2][3].

Together with Professor Philip George Howthern Gell, he developed a classification of immune mechanisms of tissue injury, now known as the "Gell-Coombs classification", comprising four types of reactions[4].

Together with W.E. Parish and A.F. Wells he put forward an explanation of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as an anaphylactic reaction to dairy proteins.[5]

6.-Ira James CunninghamIra James Cunningham (1905–1971) was a New Zealand researcher in trace element nutrition and animal science. He is best remembered as a past president of the New Zealand Veterinary Association.

Biography

Early years

Cunningham was born at Mangatainoka in the Wairarapa in New Zealand on August 16, 1905. He was dux of Dannevirke High School and later took a position as a cadet in the chemical laboratory of the Department of Agriculture in Wellington. While at the Department, Cunningham studied part time at Victoria University College.

In 1928, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree, and in 1929 with a Master's of Science with first-class honours in Chemistry.

In 1929, Cunningham attended the Rowett Research Institute at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and this marked the beginning of his lifelong interest in trace element nutrition. He returned to New Zealand with a PhD in copper metabolism to become a research officer in animal nutrition at Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory in Upper Hutt.

Cunningham then attended the University of Sydney and gained a Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc).

Career

Upon his return to Wallaceville, he was appointed chief biochemist and section leader and concentrated on his main work of improving livestock production.

In 1945, with the support of John Filmer, director of the Animal Research Division of the Department of Agriculture, Cunningham became superintendent of the Wallaceville station. He was in charge of Wallaceville from 1945 to 1958.

Cunningham became Assistant Director General of Agriculure in 1958 and his services to agriculture were recognised in 1959 when he was made a CBE. The degree of DSc was conferred upon Cunningham the same year by Victoria University of Wellington for his research on copper metabolism, and he received an honorary DVSc from the University of Melbourne in 1967.

In 1962, Cunningham was appointed as foundation dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Massey Agricultural College in Christchurch.

Cunningham was made a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1963 and was awarded the Society’s Hector Memorial Medal and Prize in 1971. Among elected offices Cunningham held were those of chairman of the Veterinary Surgeons' Board, president of the New Zealand Veterinary Association, and president of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production.

Death

Cunningham died at Palmerston North, New Zealand on August 28, 1971.

7.-Peter Charles DohertyPeter Charles Doherty, AC (born 15 October 1940) is an Australian Veterinary Surgeon and researcher in the field of medicine. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkernagel in 1996, and was named Australian of the Year in 1997. In the Australia Day Honours of 1997, he was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his work with Zinkernagel.[1] Zinkernagel was named an honorary Companion. He is also a National Trust Living Treasure.

Doherty's research focuses on the immune system, and his Nobel work described how the body's immune cells protect against viruses. He and Rolf Zinkernagel, the co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, discovered how T cells recognize their target antigens in combination with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins.

Viruses infect host cells and reproduce inside them. Killer T-cells destroy those infected cells so that the viruses cannot reproduce. Zinkernagel and Doherty discovered that, in order for killer T cells to recognize infected cells, they had to recognize two molecules on the surface of the cell – not only the virus antigen, but also a molecule of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). This recognition was done by a T-cell receptor on the surface of the T cell. The MHC was previously identified as being responsible for the rejection of incompatible tissues during transplantation. Zinkernagel and Doherty discovered that the MHC was responsible for the body fighting meningitis viruses too.[2]

Doherty was born in Brisbane, Queensland, where he attended Indooroopilly State High School. He received his bachelor's degree in veterinary science in 1962 and his master's degree in veterinary science in 1966 from the University of Queensland. After obtaining his PhD in 1970 from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, he returned to Australia to perform his Nobel Prize-winning research at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra. Doherty currently spends three months of the year conducting research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.[1] For the other 9 months of the year he works in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne, Victoria. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987. [3]

His semi-autobiographical book, The Beginner's Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, was published by The Miegunyah Press, an imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Ltd, Melbourne in 2005.

8.-Johann Christian Polycarp ErxlebenJohann Christian Polycarp Erxleben (22 June 1744 – 19 August 1777) was a German naturalist from Quedlinburg.

Erxleben was Professor of physics and veterinary medicine at the University of Göttingen. He wrote Anfangsgründe der Naturlehre and Systema regni animalis (1777). He was founder of the first and oldest academic Veterinary School in Germany, the Institute of Veterinary Medicine, in 1771.

He was Dorothea Christiane Erxleben's son, who was the first woman in Germany to be promoted to a medical doctor.1

9.-Noel FitzpatrickNoel Fitzpatick (born 1970 [this can't be true if he graduated in 1990 - aged 20!] [1])is an Irish neuro-orthopaedic veterinary surgeon and a pioneer of bionic development in animals. He currently operates a multi-million pound practice of some 65 employees, named Fitzpatrick Referrals, in Eashing, Surrey, England.[2][3][4]In 2009 he became the first surgeon in the world to bioengineer two bionic feet and successfully administer them to a cat named Oscar from Jersey who had lost both its feet in an accident with a combine harvester.[5]

Biography

Fitzpatrick was born in Ireland in 1970. He grew up on a farm and developed a love of animals from a young age. The day that the family failed to save a baby lamb from death gave Fitzpatrick a purpose in life; to become a veterinarian.[1]

Fitzpatrick qualified as a veterinary surgeon from University College Dublin in 1990, a received scholarships at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Ghent.[6] He spent periods at several universities in the UK and USA, attaining certificates in small animal orthopaedics and radiology.

In 2008 Fitzpatrick was appointed the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Florida School of Veterinary Medicine and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Surrey for his contribution to medical science.[6]

Biotechnological pioneering

Fitzpatrick is a pioneer in his field, administering biotechnology to animals. He has developed many novel techniques and technologies to save his animal patients from being put to sleep. He claims to have got the idea of the bionic feet attached with steel rods through the original X Men film through the character of Wolverine.[1][5] He used this novel idea to provide a solution to a Labrador dog plagued with crippling arthritis.[2]

As in the case with Oscar the Cat, Fitzpatrick bioengineered in collaboration with the University College London steel rods coated with hydroxyapatite which were attached to the ankle joints of the cat.[3] They were administered in such a way that it encourages the bone cells and skin to grow onto the rods and then create a resilient seal to prevent it from any infection.[3] This is unique in that if such rods were administered to a human, the body would reject the steel and infection would almost certainly follow.[5]Although the operation carried out by Noel Fitzpatrick was a world first, it mimics a natural process, being similar to the way deer grow antler bones, in the manner that the implants grow through the skin.[7] It is known as intraosseous transcutaneous amputation prosthetics (ITAPs) and were developed by the head of University College London's Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Gordon Blunn and colleagues.[5] This ITAP technology is currently being tested on humans and a prosthetic has been made for a woman injured in the July 2005 London bombings.[5] Fitzpatrick has stated that he would welcome a collaborative approach with other surgeons working on human amputations.[8]

Fitzpatrick also treated an American bulldog named Roly from Hampshire who become the first dog in the world to be fitted with an artificial hip, specially designed to "sandwich" muscle with metal to restore full mobility.[4] He was also once hired by Chris Evans to help his German Shepherd dog Enzo who had two herniated discs in his spine, leaving him paralysed and in pain.[1] Fitzpatrick performed a £5,000 procedure on the nine-year-old dog and inserted two bolts in the middle of his spine to fuse two vertebrae, although the dog had to be put down the following year, as it was experiencing pain.[1]

Fitzpatrick currently appears in the series The Bionic Vet, aired on BBC 1.

10.-Bruce FogleBruce Fogle (born 17 February 1944) is a veterinarian and prolific author. Canadian by birth, he has lived and worked in London for many years.

Fogle was born in Toronto, where he grew up and was educated. He graduated in 1970 with a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph in nearby Guelph, Ontario. After graduation, Fogle worked as a vet for the Zoological Society of London at London Zoo. In 1973 Fogle set up his own practice, the Portman Veterinary Clinic.

Outside his profession, Fogle is the co-founder and vice-chairman of the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, a founding member of The Society for Companion Animal Studies in the United Kingdom, and the Delta Society in the United States. He has written dozens of books about dogs and cats, including encyclopedias of breeds and how to care for and live with these animals.

Fogle has also been Veterinary Consultant to Microsoft Encarta, and Veterinary Advisor to the Encyclopædia Britannica.

For many years Fogle appeared regularly on Jimmy Young's BBC Radio 2 show. He continues the same role on Jeremy Vine's radio show. In 2004, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. [1]

11.-Camille GuérinJean-Marie Camille Guérin (22 December 1872, Poitiers, France – 9 June 1961, Paris, France) was a French veterinarian, bacteriologist and immunologist who, together with Albert Calmette, developed the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), a vaccine for immunization against tuberculosis.

Biography

Camille Guérin was born in Poitiers to a family of modest means. His father died of tuberculosis in 1882 (as well as his wife, in 1918). He studied veterinary medicine at the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort from 1892 to 1896, working, while a student, as an assistant to pathologist Edmond Nocard (1850–1903).

In 1897, he joined the Institut Pasteur de Lille (Lille, France) and started to work with its director, French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist Albert Calmette (1863–1933). He started as a technician in charge of preparing Calmette's serum (antivenom against snake bites) and the vaccine against smallpox. He improved considerably the production techniques of the later, by using rabbits as intermediate hosts, and developed also a method to quantify the remaining virulence of these vaccines.

At Lille, he was promoted to Head of Laboratory in 1900. Thereafter, from 1905 to 1915, and from 1918 to 1928 he devoted himself to the research on a vaccine against tuberculosis, in close association with Calmette, until his death in 1933.

He discovered in 1905 that the bovine tuberculosis bacillum, the Mycobacterium bovis, could immunize the animals without causing the disease. Henceforth, he and Calmette developed ways of attenuate the pathogenic activity of Mycobacterium, using successive transferrals of culture. In 1908, after successfully obtaining an immunologically active preparation that could be use to produced a vaccine, he published with Calmette the results of what was named the BCG.

In 1919 he was promoted again, this time to Head of Services. Finally, in 1921, after 230 passages of the BCG culture, they obtained an effective vaccine that could be used in humans. In 1928 he moved to Paris to became the director of the Tuberculosis Service at the Pasteur Institute.

In 1939 he became vice-president of the "Comité National de Défense contre la Tuberculose" (National Defense Committee against Tuberculosis). In 1948 Guérin was chairman of the First International Congress on BCG. He was also President of the Veterinary Academy of France (1949), and President of the Academy of Medicine (1951). In 1955, the French Academy of Sciences awarded him the Scientific Grand Prix.

He died aged 89, in the Hôpital Pasteur in Paris.

12.-Ernst Friedrich GurltErnst Friedrich Gurlt (October 13, 1794 – August 13, 1882) was a German veterinarian born in Drentkau near Grünberg, Silesia. He was the father of surgeon Ernst Julius Gurlt (1825-1899).

Initially trained as a pharmacist, he later studied medicine and worked as an assistant at the anatomical institute in Breslau. Following graduation in 1819, he taught classes at the Berlin Tierarzneischule (Veterinary School), where from 1827 to 1870 he held the title of professor. In 1849 he was appointed technical director of the school.

Gurlt is remembered for pioneer work in the field of comparative veterinary anatomy, and his research on animal deformities. During his career he amassed an impressive collection of anatomical malformations. With Carl Heinrich Hertwig (1798-1881), he founded Magazin für die gesammte Thierheilkunde (Magazine for the Whole of Veterinary Science).

Selected writings

Handbuch der vergleichendcn Anatomie der Haussaugetiere (1821; 7th edition- 1890)

Lehrbuch der pathologischen Anatomie der Haussaugetiere (with 35 plates, 1831-32, with supplement, 1849)

"Anatomy of the Horse" (English translation by J. Willimott, 35 plates, 1833)

Lehrbuch der vergloichenden Physiologie der Haussaugetiere (1837; 3d edition- 1865)

''Chirurgische Anatomie und Operationslehre für Thierärzte (1847), with Carl Heinrich Hertwig.

13.-James HerriotJames Herriot is the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, also known as Alf Wight (3 October 1916 – 23 February 1995), an English veterinary surgeon and writer. Wight is best known for his semi-autobiographical stories, often referred to collectively as All Creatures Great and Small, a title used in some editions and in film and television adaptations.

Biography

James Alfred Wight was born on 3 October 1916, in Sunderland, County Durham, England to James (1890–1960) and Hannah (1890–1980) Wight. Shortly after their wedding, the Wights moved from Brandling Street, Sunderland [1] to Glasgow in Scotland, where James took work as both a ship plater and pianist for a local cinema, while Hannah was a singer as well as a dressmaker.[1] For Alf's birth, his mother returned to Sunderland, bringing him back to Glasgow when he was three weeks old. He attended Yoker Primary School and Hillhead High School.

In 1939, at the age of 23, he qualified as a veterinary surgeon with Glasgow Veterinary College. In January 1940, he took a brief job at a veterinary practice in Sunderland, but moved in July to work in a rural practice based in the town of Thirsk, Yorkshire, close to the Yorkshire Dales and North York Moors, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. On 5 November 1941, he married Joan Catherine Anderson Danbury. The couple had two children, James Alexander (Jim), born 1943, who also became a vet and was a partner in the practice, and Rosemary (Rosie), born 1947, who became a physician in general practice.

Wight served in the Royal Air Force in 1942. His wife moved to her parents' house during this time, and upon being discharged from the RAF as a Leading Aircraftman, Wight joined her. They lived there until 1946, at which point they moved back to 23 Kirkgate, staying until 1953. Later, he moved with his wife to a house on Topcliffe Road, Thirsk, opposite the secondary school. The original practice is now a museum, "The World of James Herriot", while the Topcliffe Road house is in private ownership and not open to the public. He later moved with his family to the village of Thirlby, about four miles from Thirsk, where he lived until his death.

Wight intended for years to write a book, but with most of his time consumed by veterinary practice and family, his writing ambition went nowhere. Challenged by his wife, in 1966 (at the age of 50), he began writing. After several rejected stories on other subjects like football, he turned to what he knew best. In 1969 Wight wrote If Only They Could Talk, the first of the now-famous series based on his life working as a vet and his training in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. Owing in part to professional etiquette which at that time frowned on veterinary surgeons and other

professionals from advertising their services, he took a pen name, choosing "James Herriot" after seeing the Scottish goalkeeper Jim Herriot play for Birmingham City F.C. in a televised game against Manchester United. If Only They Could Talk was published in the United Kingdom in 1970 by Michael Joseph Ltd, but sales were slow until Thomas McCormack, of St. Martin's Press in New York City, received a copy and arranged to have the first two books published as a single volume in the United States. The resulting book, titled All Creatures Great and Small, was an overnight success, spawning numerous sequels, movies, and a successful television adaptation.

Wight was found to have prostate cancer in 1991,[1] and underwent treatment in the Lambert Memorial Hospital in Thirsk. He died on 23 February 1995, aged 78, at home in Thirlby.[2]

On 29 July 2009, UK-based open access rail operator Grand Central Railway, who operate train services from Wight's birthplace of Sunderland to London King's Cross (calling at Thirsk), named a Class 180 DEMU No. 180112 James Herriot in his honour. The ceremony was carried out jointly by Alf Wight's daughter Rosie, and son, Jim.[3]

Author

In his books, Wight calls the town where he lives and works Darrowby, which he based largely on the towns of Thirsk [4] and Sowerby. He also renamed Donald Sinclair and his brother Brian Sinclair as Siegfried and Tristan Farnon, respectively.

Wight's books are only partially autobiographical. Many of the stories are only loosely based on real events or people, and thus can be considered primarily fiction.

From a historical standpoint, the stories help document a transitional period in the veterinary industry: agriculture was moving from the traditional use of beasts of burden (in Britain, primarily the draught horse) to reliance upon the mechanical tractor, and medical science was just on the cusp of discovering the antibiotics and other drugs that eliminated many of the ancient remedies still in use. These and other sociological factors, like increased affluence, prompted a large-scale shift in veterinary practice over the course of the 20th century: at its start, virtually all of a vet's time was spent working with large animals: horses (motive power in both town and country), cattle, sheep, goats and pigs. By the year 2000, the majority of vets practised mostly on dogs, cats, and other companion animals belonging to a population having a larger disposable income, people who could afford, and had the leisure time, to keep animals merely for pleasure. Wight (as Herriot) occasionally steps out of his narrative to comment, with the benefit of hindsight, on the primitive state of veterinary medicine at the time of the story he is telling, for example, describing his first hysterectomy on a cat, and his first (almost disastrous) Caesarean section on a cow.

The Herriot books are often described as "animal stories" (Wight himself was known to refer to them as his "little cat-and-dog stories"[5]), and given that they are about the life of a country veterinarian, animals certainly play a significant role in most of the stories. Yet animals play a lesser, sometimes even a negligible role in many of Wight's tales: the overall theme of his stories is Yorkshire country life, with its people and their animals

primary elements that provide its distinct character. Further, it is Wight's shrewd observations of persons, animals, and their close inter-relationship, which give his writing much of its savour. Wight was just as interested in their owners as he was in his patients, and his writing is, at root, an amiable but keen comment on the human condition. The Yorkshire animals provide the element of pain and drama; the role of their owners is to feel and express joy, sadness, sometimes triumph. The animal characters also prevent Wight's stories from becoming twee or melodramatic - animals, unlike some humans, do not pretend to be ailing, nor have they imaginary complaints and needless fears. Their ill-health is real, not the result of flaws in their character which they avoid mending. In an age of social uncertainties, when there seem to be no remedies for anything, Wight's stories of resolute grappling with mysterious bacterial foes or severe injuries have an almost heroic quality, giving the reader a sense of assurance, even hope. Best of all, James Herriot has an abundant humour about himself and his difficulties. He never feels superior to any living thing, and is ever eager to learn - about animal doctoring, and about his fellow human creature.

The books have been adapted for film and television, including a 1975 film titled All Creatures Great and Small and a long-running BBC television programme of the same title.

At the time of his death, the Reader's Digest Condensed Book volume containing All Creatures Great And Small (Volume 96, 1973 #5) was the most popular book in that series' history.[5] His last book, Every Living Thing, immediately went into the top 10 bestseller list in Britain, and had an 865,000 copy first edition printing in the United States.[5]

Herriot's fame has generated a thriving tourist economy in Thirsk. Local businesses include the "World of James Herriot" museum (located in 23 Kirkgate, the original practice surgery), and a pub called the "Darrowby Inn". Many of the original contents of his surgery can be found at the Yorkshire Museum of Farming in Murton, York. Parts of the BBC TV series set including the living room and the dispensary (see picture, right) are on display at the James Herriot museum in Thirsk, which is also open to the public.

In July 2010 it was announced that Koco Drama,[6] a subsidiary of Shed Media would be producing a three part drama called Young James for the BBC inspired by the true story of James Herriot and how he learnt his trade in Scotland. This series will draw on archives and exclusive access to the diaries and case notes he kept during his student days in Glasgow, as well as the biography written by his son.[7]

In September 2010, the Gala Theatre in Durham presented the world premiere professional stage adaptation of All Creatures Great & Small.[citation

14.-Philippe-Etienne LafossePhilippe-Etienne Lafosse (born 1738 in Paris, France; died June 1820 in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, France), was a French veterinarian and the son of Etienne-Guillaume Lafosse, a farrier.

He is famous for a series of books on horse care, medicine and anatomy which feature elaborate and often highly abstracted illustrations. His works can be found today at the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort, France's oldest and most prestigious veterinary school and hospital on the outskirts of Paris. At the time of the school's founding 1766 and Lafosse's work, horses played an important role in French economic, and military success and as such many scientists devoted careers to the study of equine science.

Publications

father of veterinary anatomy

Mémoire sur la morsure de la musaraigne (1763) (Memoire on the bite of the shrew) (It was still believed at this time that the bite of the shrew was venomous like the spider's. In fact, in French, the scientific name for shrew, musaraneus, is formed from the Latin root for mouse "mus" and for spider "araneau").

Guide du Maréchal (1766) (Guide for shoeing horses).

Cours d'hippiatrique, ou traité complet de la médicine des chevaux (1772) (Veterinary studies, or complete treatise on equine medicine).

Dictionnaire raisonné d'hippiatrique, cavalerie, manège et maréchallerie (1775) (Dictionary of Veterinary studies, cavalry, horse tack and horse-shoeing).

15.-Karl Friedrich MeyerKarl Friedrich Meyer (19 May 1884–27 April 1974) was an American scientist of Swiss origin. He was one of the most prodigious scientists in many areas of infectious diseases in man and animals, the ecology of pathogens, epidemiology and public health[1-6]. Some called him the “Pasteur of the 20th century”[1].

Early Life, Education

Meyer was born in Basel (Switzerland) to Theodor Meyer, 1852–1934, (a „Meyer zum Pfeil”), international cigar merchant, and Sophie, née Lichtenhahn, teacher, 1857-1936. Karl Friedrich had two younger sisters.

Meyer began his studies in 1902 at the University of Basel and soon moved to the University of Zurich where he concentrated on biology, zoology, histology, and laboratory techniques. He was greatly fostered by Heinrich Zangger, professor of comparative anatomy (and later the first professor of Medical Law in Zurich), who sent him to work with leading scientists in Munich and Bern [2]. Meyer was deeply impressed and influenced by Zangger's social consciousness. He received a doctorate of veterinary medicine in 1909 from the University of Zurich. – Later, in 1924, Meyer spent a sabbatical leave from the University of California in Zurich and obtained a Ph.D. in Bacteriology from the University of Zurich.

Scientific career

South Africa, 1908-1910

Meyer found his first employment in South Africa. The Transvaal Department of Agriculture in the (then) Union of South Africa had just established a large, special Institute devoted to research in public health and farm animal diseases, the latter being important for the economy of the country. The first director of the institute was another Swiss veterinarian, Arnold Theiler (father of the Nobel prize winner Max Theiler), famous for having successfully combated the so-called rinderpest, African horse sickness, and many other viral and bacterial infections of livestock.

Theiler employed Meyer as pathologist (i.e. to study and diagnose diseases by examination of organs, tissues, body fluids, and whole bodies). In this function he autopsied hundreds of animals and developed outstanding dexterity in doing this[1].

In addition, Meyer had to develop vaccines, one against rabies, another to protect cattle against pleuro-pneumonia, a disease with devastating economic consequences for the farmers. In these studies he discovered a hitherto unknown type of the germ (now known as a mycoplasma) causing the disease. Moreover, he was able to answer one important question as to the lifecycle of the parasite causing African East Coast fever. And he showed that cattle could be protected against the illness[3].

Meyer and Theiler both were strong personalities who did not get along too well. Shortly after returning to Switzerland, Meyer was offered a position of an assistant professor at the Veterinary School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Pennsylvania, USA, 1910-1913

Meyer had to teach pathology and comparative pathology at the Veterinary School of Pennsylvania. He soon got into arguments with the Dean over his rough dealing with ill prepared students – criticism that was fell founded, however. Then, the faculty promoted Meyer to full professor, and put him in charge of the diagnostic section of the Laboratory and Experimental Farm, Pennsylvania Livestock Sanitary Board. – There, he worked on glanders, a bacterial disease in horses, mules, etc. which first affects the mucous membranes. It may be lethal, and is also dangerous to humans. – He also helped elucidating the transmission of the bacteria causing a contagious abortion disease of cattle and also infecting humans via unsterilized milk, causing (possibly lethal) fever. This is the so-called brucellosis, a disease Meyer continued working on later. – Meyer never just stayed in the laboratory. He wanted to put his expertise to practical use, to the benefit of the people. So he soon consulted with the Milk Commission working on regulation to secure milk quality.

California, USA, 1914-1974

In 1914 Meyer changed to the University of California (San Francisco and Berkeley) where he stayed for the rest of his life. – He was appointed to Prof. of Bacteriology and Protozoology and taught medical bacteriology at the Berkeley Medical School. Starting in 1915, he worked at the George Williams Hooper Foundation Institute for Medical Research, University of California, devoted to medical research (whose first director was George H. Whipple, the Nobelist). At first, Meyer was acting director, and soon succeeded Whipple as director of the Hooper.[1] Meyer’s personality, his enormous knowledge combined with his energy and extraordinary drive were just what was needed to tackle the many pioneering tasks. He contributed significantly to the understanding, treatment, and prevention of many infectious (and other) diseases. His contributions and achievements were founded on his holistic, ecological approach. He was a generalist. I.e., he always concurrently concentrated on the interactions and interdependencies of the factors involved, as they are: (i) the disease agents (biology, habitat, hosts, transmission to man, infectiousness, etc.); (ii) disease in man and animals (diagnosis, therapies, pathology, epidemiology); (iii) public health; and (iv) education[4].

Research, Achievements

A selection of concise overviews of Meyer’s impacts on the understanding of the diseases he worked on, their diagnoses and treatments, and their prevention are presented below.

Brucellosis

Meyer contributed significantly to the understanding of the broad spectrum of the disease forms of Brucellosis. He suggested classing the various species of bacteria into one family (genus), formally named Brucella, to honor the discoverer, Sir David Bruce

(microbiologist and pathologist; 1855–1931). – Meyer also worked on tests and treatments of the diseases. As a member of the San Francisco State Milk Commission he helped to develop industrial food processing standards needed for upgrading the hygiene in the milk industries.

Botulism

Meyer started his work on botulism after 1913, when home-canning became popular during the war, and sterilization techniques were not sufficient. Around 1920, the entire canning industry in California (whose business in canned food then amounted to almost a billion dollars) was in jeopardy because many deaths occurred throughout the country due to lack of proper sterilization in the canneries. Meyer then convinced the National Canners Association to fund research and development of safe industrial processes. Owing to Meyer, a research institute was founded, financed by the canning industries, and directed by him from 1926 to 1930. A canning research laboratory existed in the Hooper until the 1980s. Meyer continued consulting with the industries until his death. Thus, he deserves the credit for developing safe canning procedures, for realizing effective control over industrial hygiene, and for the prevention of botulism.

Equine encephalitis

Meyer also investigated what are called arbovirus diseases, among them equine encephalitis. Several diseases transmitted from animals to humans are due to a group of viruses carried by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes belong to the ‘animal family’ (technically a ‘phylum’) called arthropods; hence the viruses carried by them are arthropod-borne. Different arboviruses may cause diverse diseases. Here, we summarize examples of Meyer’s outstanding discoveries in this area. In the early 1930s, thousands of horses in California suffered and died from a paralytic disease, later called western equine encephalitis. Meyer proved that it was of viral origin. Later it became clear that the virus can also infect humans causing encephalitis, sometimes with deadly complications. – Meyer and his colleagues at the Hooper later demonstrated that mosquitoes pick up the virus from chicken and (migratory) birds and transfer it to man and to horses. It also became clear that the disease is common near irrigated fields where mosquitoes abound. Meyer therefore qualified encephalitis as a man-made disease. Subsequently, a vaccine for horses was developed. And it turned out that the isolation of the virus by Meyer led to the discovery of similar kinds causing other types of encephalitis in man. (Other microbiologists found related types of viruses in other animals than horses.) – Effective mosquito control was the key to minimizing this problem.

Yellow fever

During the years of World War 2 a vaccine against yellow fever was used in the Armed Forces that produced (unexpectedly) adverse reactions such as jaundice. Meyer stepped in, discovered mistakes in its production and helped producing a safe and effective vaccine[1].

Plague

Meyer conducted a great many investigations on the nature of the bacillus causing plague, on the important function of the different fleas (carrying the bacillus), the epidemiology of the rodents (infested by fleas), the influence of the location of their habitats, and its climate and vegetation, etc. His extensive work finally led him to define general ecological conditions for outbreaks of plague epidemics. This, in fact, was one of Meyer’s great contributions[5]. Moreover, Meyer and his scientists at the Hooper developed an effective vaccine. It was actually manufactured at the Hooper when the Army needed vaccines to protect the troops in Vietnam (one endemic area where many plague cases were seen among soldiers). The results were excellent; no epidemic was observed. – Meyer went on to develop optimal, effective therapies using antibiotics, another of his contributions.

Psittacosis

Psittacosis belongs to a group of infectious diseases transmitted from birds to man (so-called ornithoses). – Meyer isolated the agent of psittacosis (i.e. one of the Chlamydia bacteria) and later also defined antigens. In addition, in the early 1930s, Meyer fought for interstate embargo on the export of parakeets to stop propagation of the disease. He also was responsible for California-wide actions to liberate the majority of aviaries of infested birds. To this goal, the Hooper became a center for testing thousands of birds and selecting the ones free of the bacteria, with the result that germs and disease largely disappeared from local commerce. With the advent of antibiotics, the disease can be successfully treated. Meyer, together with colleagues, developed a system of quarantine and treatment for imported birds that was highly effective in minimizing psittacosis in imported pet birds. The incidence of psittacosis declined notably owing to the many discoveries in this area by Meyer.

Mussel Poison

Under Meyer’s guidance, methods of testing mussels for the presence of the poison, leading to the so-called paralytic shellfish poisoning, were developed at the Hooper. And the California State Department of Health decided (in 1929) to monitor the mussels closely, and to publicize a ban on harvesting of shellfish, when the annual appearance of the poison is detected.

Valley Fever

Valley fever, i.e. coccidioidomycosis (or California Valley Fever) is caused by airborne, fungal particles dwelling in the soil in certain parts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Infection is caused – in about half of the people exposed – by inhalation of the fungal particles (known as arthroconidia, a form of spore). The disease is not transmitted from person to person. – The fungal particles were isolated by Meyer who also thoroughly investigated and described the epidemiology of the disease.

Leptospirosis

The disease Leptospirosis may be transmitted to humans upon exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals (such as cattle, pigs, horses, dogs, rodents, and other wild animals). Meyer’s many investigations contributed greatly to the understanding of the disease. He developed a diagnostic test as well as methods of vaccination. Among other things, Meyer found about half of all dogs in San Francisco infected. Later, after Meyer’s interventions, the dog-epidemic disappeared.

Additional Achievements

Meyer worked, in addition to the many fields mentioned, also on the effects of air pollution and lead on farm animals, as well as on typhoid fever (– after a spaghetti casserole served at a church dinner poisoned about 100 people). He also explored influenza and its epidemiology, looked into malaria, tetanus, viral hepatitis, anthrax, poliomyelitis, dysentery, pseudotuberculosis, common cold, and dental bacteriology [1][3]

[4]. - Meyer was of course active against the anti-vivisectionist movement, too.

To boot, many scientists thought that Meyer’s outlining and discussion of the concept of latent infections was a very significant and wide-ranging contribution. Equally, his conception of the (large) reservoir of microbes in the animal kingdom, bearing many dangers to humans, was very important, too. Meyer’s extraordinary series of publications and papers presented at conferences (including talks on the radio) were important parts in promoting the state of the art. He published more than 800 articles in books and scientific journals (of which about 200 were written after his official retirement, when continuing his work as Honorary Director of the Hooper Institute and Honorary Professor). Meyer always served on editorial boards of several professional journals. Thus, he kept in close contact and co-operated with many other leading medical microbiologists, medical doctors, leaders in public health, and agencies of public health[6].

Teaching

In 1914, Meyer began teaching courses in medical bacteriology at Berkeley. His lectures, always most diligently prepared, were all brilliant, dynamic, captivating, and demanded a great deal from all students. Soon his lectures were famous and attracted great numbers of students (also from outside of medicine)[4].

Epilogue

It may well be repeated what many friends and colleagues concluded after his death: Meyer influenced more microbiological and epidemiological domains than any other scientist of his time; and he was driven by his deep-seated concern for the welfare of the people. He always went beyond the scientific research in order to implement practical measures of preventing and fighting the diseases. A former student and friend once put it like this: “Meyer would have won a Nobel Prize if he hadn’t worked on so many areas of discovery that nobody could keep track of all that he was doing”[1]. He was responsible, among others, for improving laws regulating hygiene in the food industries and in public health. And he deserves many credits for establishing training programs in

Public Health in California (and the Western States of the US). To boot, he was famous being an excellent and inspiring though very demanding teacher[4]. Meyer was honored for his outstanding work by many honorary degrees, awards, medals, fellowships, honorary memberships or honorary chairmanships of scientific associations. Nine American and European universities bestowed honorary doctorates on him[6]. The many academic appointments, chairs, and consulting activities are also listed in the literature[1].It is of no surprise to hear that Meyer, with his boundless zest for an active life, had widely ranging interests, including history and, in particular, history of biology. He also was an accomplished photographer and fascinated by radio in its early days. Another specialty of his was philately where he concentrated on disinfected mail, about which he brought out a book. It is worthy to recall what was said in Meyer’s obituary published by the University of California: “Science and friends alike will miss his rugged personality, his directness, his genius, his bonhommie, his love of good company, good conversation, and good wine, and his graciousness. Those who knew him at close hand rejoiced his friendship. His lifelong devoted support was a priceless boon to those who had worked with him – the ‘hand on the shoulder’ for many years” [6].

16.-Edmond NocardEdmond Isidore Etienne Nocard (29 January 1850 – 2 August 1903), was a French veterinarian and microbiologist, born in Provins (Seine-et-Marne, France).

Nocard studied veterinary medicine from 1868 to 1871 and (after a brief service in the Army) from 1871 to 1873 in the École Vétérinaire de Maisons-Alfort. From 1873 to 1878 he was hired as Head of Clinical Service at the same school, working with Dumesnil. In 1876 he is charged with the creation of a new journal, the Archives Vétérinaires. In this journal, Nocard will publish a great number of scientific papers, on medicine, surgery, hygiene and jurisprudence. In 1878 he is approved in a public contest as Professor of Clinical and Surgical Veterinary of the École Veterinaire. Among his many pupils who became famous, was Camille Guérin, co-discoverer of the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG).

In 1880 Nocard entered the laboratory of Louis Pasteur in Paris as an assistant. There, he helped Pasteur and Emile Roux in their classic experiments of vaccination of animals against anthrax at Pouilly-le-Fort. In 1883, he traveled to Egypt with Roux, Straus and Thuiller, in order to study an outbreak of cholera there, but they were unable to isolate the germ responsible for the disease. He returned on the same year to Alfort, and established a well-equipped research laboratory, in close liaison with Pasteur's. In the next three years, Nocard demonstrated his great skills in laboratory work in the new science of bacteriology, by developing a number of new techniques, such as methods of harvesting blood serum, new culture media for the bacillus of tuberculosis, the introduction of anesthesia of large animals with intravenous chloral hydrate, as well as for controlling tetanic convulsions. His scientific and academic victories were rewarded, in 1887, with the title of director of the School, and chair of infectious diseases, and, in 1888, with an invitation to become a member to the first editorial board of the Annals of the Pasteur Institute. He became a full member of the Pasteur Institute in 1895. From 1892 to 1896, he strived to convince the medical and general public, in a series of communications, conferences, booklets and demonstrations, that the use of the tuberculin of Robert Koch could provide the foundations for the prevention of bovine tuberculosis. He published in the classic La Tuberculose Bovine : ses Dangers, ses Rapports avec la Tuberculose Humaine (The Bovine Tuberculosis: Its Dangers and its Relationship with Human Tuberculosis).

Nocard’s main contribution to medicine has been the discovery of the genre of bacteria which was named in his honor, Nocardia. It causes nocardiosis, a disease which manifests itself mainly in animals of economic importance, such as bovine farcy, for which he discovered the first Nocardia, named by him initially as Streptothrix farcinica. The Nocardia may also cause disease in humans, particularly in immunocompromised patients, such as those with AIDS.

In the field of veterinary pathology he discovered the pathogen of endozootic mastitis, Streptococcus agalactiae. Nocard also discovered the virus which causes bovine peripneumonia and studied psittacosis.

He died on 2 August 1903 in Saint-Maurice (Marne)

17.-Robert von OstertagRobert von Ostertag (March 24, 1864 - October 7, 1940) was a German veterinarian who was a native of Schwäbisch Gmünd.

He studied medicine in Berlin and veterinary medicine in Stuttgart, and afterwards was a professor of hygiene at Tierärztliche Hochschule Stuttgart (1891-1892) and at the College of Veterinary Medicine in Berlin (1892-1907). In 1907 he became head of the veterinary department in the Reich Health Office in Berlin. In 1910 he travelled to German Southwest Africa to research diseases of sheep, and in 1913 he investigated rinderpest in German East Africa. In 1920 he became head of veterinary services in Germany.

In the 1890s, Ostertag started a rigorous program of meat inspection in Berlin, and was referred to as the "Father of Veterinary Meat Inspection" in Germany. Ostertag's meat inspection act of 1900 greatly reduced incidences of bovine tuberculosis in human beings. He was the author of numerous publications in veterinary science, and is remembered for his influential Lehrbuch für Fleischbeschauer (Handbook of Meat Inspection), which was later translated into English.

His name is lent to Ostertagia, which is a genus of attenuated nematodes of the family Trichostrongylidae, which are found in cysts on the wall of the abomasum of cattle and other ruminants. The disease associated with the organism is called ostertagiosis.

18.-Jan Poels Prof. Dr. Jan Poels (1851-1927) was a Dutch veterinarian and professor, and founder of the State Serum Institute in Rotterdam.

Poels was born in Limburg and studied veterinary medicine at the Rijksveeartsenijschool Utrecht. He was interested in the fledgling science of bacteriology.

Bacteriologist

After he established himself as a veterinarian in Delfshaven Poels took a pioneering independent from its own resources and bacteriology in hand. He took into a comprehensive network of scientific contacts. Late 19th century they felt regarding the control of many infectious diseases is still largely in the dark. The Dutch veterinary science of the time barely showed interest in the subject.

In Poels Rotterdam to as district vet since 1893 using the facilities of the municipal laboratory for bacteriological and serological tests Coolsingel Hospital and local GPs was done and where you also could go for vaccinations. Poels gave it a bacteriology course.

Rich Serum Institute

The Dutch government was Poels an official commission to study the kalverziekte. His investigations have led that fight this disease with some certainty and understanding could be performed.

In Poels 1900 gave the government the task of vesicular disease - which was then made thousands of victims - in a study to design and instructions for the strategy to combat. In 1904 the government declared its readiness to proceed to the establishment of the State Serum Institute in Rotterdam, the first of its kind in Europe. Poels was informed the Director. In 1910 he became director of the Municipal Bacteriological Laboratory, Rotterdam and in 1911 he was in Leiden (special) was appointed professor of bacteriology. Poels was from 1917 to 1924 also professor at the Rijksveeartsenijschool Utrecht.

19.-Gaston RamonGaston Ramon (September 30, 1886 - June 8, 1963) was a French veterinarian and biologist best known for his role in the treatment of diphtheria and tetanus.

He was born in Bellechaume (Yonne, France) and attended l'École vétérinaire d'Alfort from 1906 to 1910. In 1917 he married Marthe Momont, grandniece of Emile Roux.

During the 1920s, Ramon made major contributions to the development of effective vaccines for both diphtheria and tetanus. In particular, he developed a method for inactivating the diphtheria toxin and the tetanus toxin using formaldehyde which, in its essentials, is still used in vaccines manufactured today. He also developed a method for determining the potency of the vaccines, an essential element required for the reproducible production of these pharmaceuticals.

20.-Sebastiano RivoltaSebastiano Rivolta (Casalbagliano, October 20, 1832 - Turin, August 14, 1893) was an Italian veterinarian and bacteriologist.

Biography

Born into a wealthy family, after having initially taken the humanities, at first in the home and later at the grammar school of Alexandria, was persuaded by his father to join the Royal School of Veterinary Medicine of Turin in 1852, winning a scholarship to study and graduating with honors four years later.

Immediately set out for his intensive research in parasitology, bacteriology, pathology and clinical, which led to the discovery and observation of the causative agents of several veterinary. Among these we remember the Discomyces bovis (1868) [1] Case dell'actinomicosi bovine; the Cryptococcus farciminosus (1873) [2], because of the equine farcino; 's Avitellina centripunctata (1874), cestodes parassitante the sheep, the Discomyces equestris (1884) [3], because of the equine botriomicosi; 's Opisthorchis felineus (1884), trematodes cause dell'opistorchiasi feline.

With his studies contributed to greater understanding of the role of many weed seeds and farm animals: the Demodex folliculorum, because of the red dog mange, the Moniezia expansa, due to taeniasis sheep, the Taenia echinococcus [4], because of 'cystic echinococcosis, Bacillus anthracis, the cause of anthrax in cattle. Observed for the first cellular inclusions characteristic of avian pox, diphtheria, laying the groundwork for the study of this disease caused by virus, in a time when virology was yet to be born. To him we owe the discovery of some particular cells in the retina of the horse, so-called "Revolt of the cells."

The experience allowed him to teach six different subjects at the University of Turin, University of Pisa before moving to replace Peter Oreste professor of veterinary medical clinic. He became a full professor of General Pathology and Veterinary Pathology, practiced teaching in the Tuscan city for 22 years until his death occurred as a result of complications with his already precarious state of health, due to a severe chronic heart disease who accompanied him from his youth. It is still buried in the cemetery monument in Alexandria.

Scientific prolific author, brought nearly two hundred original works in print. He also composed a treatise on Plant parasitology, remained for years a point of reference of the matter.

21.-Harry RowsellHarry Cecil Rowsell, OC (29 May 1921 – 3 February 2006) was a Canadian veterinarian, pathologist, animal welfare advocate and humanist.

Born in Toronto, Ontario, he served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Navy during World War II. Upon his return, he received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Ontario Veterinary College in 1949, a D.V.P.H. from the University of Toronto in 1950, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1956. In 1946, he married Anne Bradshaw. They had one daughter: Carole and three sons: Paul, Craig and John. He also has four grandchidren: Bronwyn, Claire, Philip, and Graham

From 1953 to 1956, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Bacteriology at the Ontario Veterinary College. From 1958 to 1965, he was a Professor and Head of Pathological Physiology. From 1965 to 1968, he was Head of the Department of Veterinarian Pathology, West College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan. From 1970 to 1986, he was a Professor in the Department of Pathology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa.

In 1968, he established the Canadian Council on Animal Care, was its first Executive Director, and was the first recipient of the CCAC Outstanding Service Award. In 1987, he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

In 1988, he was the first veterinarian made an Officer of the Order of Canada for being "recognized and respected throughout the world for his outstanding contributions to the promotion of the responsible and humane treatment of animals in biomedical and scientific research".

22.-Jean de la RuelleJean de la Ruelle (or Ruel), Latinized Ruellius Johannes (Soissons, 1474 - Paris, 1537), medical, or botanical fitólogo, veterinary and French humanist.

He wanted to be a priest before doctor and became canon of Notre Dame de Paris. He was also dean of the faculty of medicine at the Sorbonne (1508-1510) and one of the physicians of King Francis I. He translated and commented on Dioscorides parishes of the Greek into Latin in 1516 (Pedacii Dioscorides Anazarbei ... freedom quinque) and published an adaptation of this in his De Materia Medica, 1529. He also became interested in veterinary medicine, and did appear in 1530 a summary of symptoms of diseases of horses. Also printed in 1536 a great deal of Botany, the stirpium Natura libri III, also largely version of Dioscorides and Theophrastus, with attempts to include French plants. The genus Ruellia boánico been named in his honor. At the end of his life he took holy orders and died shortly afterwards.

23.-ShalihotraShalihotra (c. 2350 BCE?)[1], the son of a Brahmin sage, Hayagosha, is considered the founder of veterinary sciences. He is said to have lived in Sravasti (modern Sahet-Mahet on the borders of Gonda and Bahraich districts in Uttar Pradesh), a place associated with Buddha and Mahavira in the sixth century B.C.E. Others say Shalihotra lived in Salatur, a place near Kandahar.

Shalihotra and the sage Agnivesa may have been pupils of the same teacher; according to tradition, Bharadwaja's Ayurveda, the science of life, was first presented in text form by Agnivesa, in his book the Agnivesh tantra and later by Charaka (Charaka Samhita, encyclopedia of the physician Charaka). Others assert the great surgeon Acharya Sushruta (c. 600 B.C.E.?), author of 'Sushruta Samhita' (encyclopedia of the physician Sushruta), may have been Shalihotra's pupil[2].

Horses and elephants were vital assets in the never ending warfare of the ancient world. Physicians treating human beings were also trained in the care of animals. Ancient Indian medical treatises like those of Charaka, Sushruta and Harita contain chapters or references about the care of diseased as well as healthy animals.

Shalihotra's principal work was a large treatise on the care and management of horses, the 'Shalihotra Samhita' (encyclopedia of the physician Shalihotra) having some 12,000 shlokas in Sanskrit. It has been translated into Persian, Arabic, Tibetan and English languages. This work described equine and elephant anatomy, physiology, surgery and diseases with their curative and preventive measures. It elaborated on the body structures of different races of horses, and identified the structural details by which one can determine the age of a horse. Two other works, namely Asva-prashnsa and Asva-lakshana sastram are also attributed to Shalihotra.

Some of the later authors have named their veterinary works after Shalihotra and others have based their work on his Samhita. Subsequent generations copied, revised and added to Shalihotra's text—one of these later texts is shown in the illustration above. Hence the term Shalihotra refers to similar texts in a tradition. In the year 1800 B.C.E. 'Muni Palkapya' wrote 'Hasti Ayurveda' covering all aspects of elephant medicine. This book has four sections and 152 chapters including the anatomy of elephants. During Mahabharat period (1000-900 B.C.E.) Nakul, author of the Ashva-chikitsa, was considered an equine expert while Sahdev was a specialist in cattle management.

24.-Daniel Elmer SalmonDaniel Elmer Salmon (July 23, 1850 – August 30, 1914) was a veterinary surgeon. He earned the first D.V.M. degree awarded in the United States, and spent his career studying animal diseases for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He gave his name to the Salmonella genus of bacteria, which were discovered by an assistant, and named in his honor.

Early life and education

Salmon was born in Mount Olive, New Jersey.[1] Dr. Salmon's father, Daniel L. Salmon, died in 1851 and his mother, Eleanor Flock Salmon, died in 1859, leaving him an orphan at the age of 8. He was then raised by his second cousin, Aaron Howell Salmon and spent time working both on Aaron's farm and as a clerk in a country store. His early education was at the Mount Olive District School, Chester Institute, and Eastman Business College.[2] He then attended Cornell University and graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine in 1872. After an additional four years of study, in veterinary health and science, he was awarded the professional degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Cornell in 1876, the first D.V.M. degree granted in the United States.[3] Toward the end of his career at Cornell, he studied at the Alfort Veterinary School in Paris, France.[4]

Career

Dr. Salmon opened a veterinary practice in Newark, New Jersey in 1872 and subsequently moved to Asheville, North Carolina in 1875 due to his health. In 1877 he gave a series of lectures at the University of Georgia on the topic of veterinary science. He worked for the State of New York, studying diseases in swine and for the United States Department of Agriculture studying animal diseases in the southern states. In 1883 he was asked to establish a veterinary division within the Department of Agriculture. It became the Bureau of Animal Industry and he served as its chief from 1884 to December 1, 1905. Under his leadership, the Bureau eradicated contagious pleural-pneumonia of cattle in the United States, studied and controlled Texas fever (Babesia), put in place the federal meat inspection program, began inspecting exported livestock and the ships carrying them, began inspecting and quarantining imported livestock, and studied the effect of animal diseases on public health. In 1906 he established the veterinary department at the University of Montevideo, Uruguay and was its head for five years. He returned to the United States in 1911 and concentrated on veterinary work in the western region of the country.

Salmonella is a genus of microorganisms named after him, although the man who actually discovered the first strain, Salmonella cholerae suis, was Theobald Smith, Dr. Salmon's research assistant, who isolated the bacterium in 1885.[5] Since that time, more than 2,000 subtypes have been identified.

Death

He died of pneumonia August 30, 1914, in Butte, Montana and is buried in Washington, DC.[6]

25.-Theobald SmithTheobald Smith (July 31, 1859 – December 10, 1934) was a pioneering epidemiologist and pathologist and is widely-considered to be America's first internationally-significant medical research scientist.[1][2]

Education

Smith was born in Albany, New York, and received a Bachelor of Philosophy degree from Cornell University in 1881, followed by an MD degree from Albany Medical College in 1883.[1] After his graduation from medical school, Smith held a variety of temporary positions which might broadly be considered under the modern heading of "medical laboratory technician". After some prodding by his former professors, Smith secured a new research lab assistant position with the Veterinary Division of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C., beginning his position there in December 1883.[3]

Research

Smith became the Inspector of the newly created Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) in 1884. Established by Congress to combat a wide range of animal diseases—from infectious disease of swine to bovine pneumonia, Texas cattle fever to glanders—Smith worked under Daniel E. Salmon, a veterinarian and Chief of the BAI.[4] Smith also discovered the bacterial species which would eventually form the genus Salmonella.

After two years of work studying the efficacy of bacterial vaccination in pigs Smith erroneously believed he had found the causative agent of hog cholera.[5]

Smith turned his attention to Texas fever, a debilitating cattle disease. In 1889, he along with the veterinarian F.L. Kilbourne discovered Babesia bigemina, the tick-borne protozoan parasite responsible for Texas fever. This marked the first time that an arthropod had been definitively linked with the transmission of an infectious disease and presaged the eventual discovery of insects as important vectors in a number of diseases (see yellow fever, malaria).

Smith also taught at Columbian University in Washington, D.C. (now George Washington University) from 1886–1895, establishing the school's Department of Bacteriology. In 1887, Smith began research on water sanitation in his spare time, investigating the level of fecal coliform contamination in the Potomac river. Over the next five years, Smith expanded his studies to include the Hudson river and its tributaries.[6]

While Smith's work at the BAI had been highly productive, he chafed under the federal government bureaucracy and the lack of leadership from his supervisor. In 1895 Smith moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to accept a dual appointment: serve as professor of

comparative pathology at Harvard University, as well as directing the pathology lab at the Massachusetts State Board of Health.[3]

Smith joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research as Director of the Department of Animal Pathology in 1915 and remained there until his retirement in 1929.

In 1933, Smith was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Copley Medal "For his original research and observation on diseases of animals and man.".

Other discoveries

Observed differences between human and bovine tuberculosis (1895). Discussed the possibility of mosquitos as a malaria transmission vector (1899).

Variation and bacterial pathogenesis (1900).

Discovered anaphylaxis (1903).

Brucellosis infections

Smith used toxin/antitoxin as a vaccine for diphtheria (1909).

In the process of investigating an epidemic of infectious abortions of cattle in 1919, Smith described the bacteria responsible for fetal membrane disease in cows now known as Campylobacter fetus.[7]

26.-Arnold TheilerSir Arnold Theiler (26 March 1867 – 24 July 1936) is considered to be the father of veterinary science in South Africa. He was born in Frick, Canton Aargau, Switzerland. He received his higher education, and later qualified as a veterinarian, in Zurich. In 1891 Theiler travelled to South Africa and at first found employment as a farm worker on Irene Estates near Pretoria, owned by Nellmapius, but later that year started practising as a veterinarian.

His success at producing a vaccine to combat an outbreak of smallpox among the miners of the Witwatersrand brought him an appointment as state veterinarian for the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, in which capacity he served during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. During this period his research team developed a vaccine against rinderpest, a malignant and contagious disease of cattle. His tremendous energy, pioneering spirit and professional integrity brought him international recognition.

Theiler was the first Director of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, outside Pretoria. This institute under his leadership carried out research on African horse sickness, sleeping sickness, malaria, East Coast fever (Theileria parva), and tick-borne diseases such as redwater, heartwater, and biliary. The University of Pretoria Faculty of Veterinary Science was established there in 1920 which enabled veterinarians to train locally for the first time. Theiler became the first dean of this faculty.

He married Emma Sophie Jegge (1861-1951) and had two sons and two daughters, the younger two of whom worked at Onderstepoort: Hans (1894-1947), a veterinarian; Margaret (1896-1988), a teacher; Gertrude (1897-1986); and Max Theiler (1899-1972), a Nobel laureate in 1951 in Physiology and Medicine.

27.-Jean Joseph Henri ToussaintJean Joseph Henri Toussaint (April 30, 1847 - August 3, 1890) was a French veterinarian born in Rouvres-la-Chétive, department of Vosges.

In 1869 he received his diploma from the school of veterinary medicine in Lyon. In 1876 he was appointed professor of anatomy, physiology and zoology at the school of veterinary medicine in Toulouse.

Toussaint is remembered for his contributions in bacteriology. He is credited for the discovery of the bacillus that causes cholera in chickens. He also performed important studies of septicemia and tuberculosis. His most important contribution was the creation of a vaccine against anthrax. However, the credit for this discovery went to Louis Pasteur, after his celebrated demonstration with the vaccine at Pouilly-le-Fort in 1881. Pasteur never gave proper credit to Toussaint and his discovery. Famed German bacteriologist Robert Koch was aware of Toussaint's work with the vaccine, as was Pasteur's nephew, bacteriologist Adrien Loir. Loir documented this information in his 1938 book A l'ombre de Pasteur (In the Shadow of Pasteur).

28.-Erich TraubErich Traub (1906–1985) was a German veterinarian and scientist/virologist who specialized in foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest and Newcastle disease. Traub was a member of the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK), a Nazi motorist corps, from 1938–1942. He worked directly for Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), as the lab chief of the Nazi's leading bio-weapons facility on Riems Island.[1]

Traub was rescued from the Soviet zone of Germany after World War II and brought to the United States in 1949 under the auspices of the United States government program Operation Paperclip, meant to exploit scientific knowledge gained during Nazi rule in Germany.

Career

Early career and war

During the 1930s, he studied on a fellowship at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in Princeton, New Jersey mentored by Richard Shope, performing research on vaccines and viruses, including pseudorabies virus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCM).[3][4][5] During his stay in the United States, Traub and his wife were listed as members of the German American Bund, a pro-nazi German-American club just thirty miles west of Plum Island in Yaphank, Long Island, from 1934–1935.[6]

Traub worked at the University of Giessen, Germany, from 1938 to 1942.[7] Traub was a Nazi since he was a member of the NSKK, a motorist corps and a subsidiary of the SA, from 1938–1942. The NSKK was declared a condemned, not a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials.[1]

From 1942 to 1948, Traub worked a lab-chief at the Reich Research Institute for Virus Diseases of Animals (German: Reichsforschungsanstalt für Viruskrankheiten der Tiere) on Riems Island (German: Insel Riems), a German animal virus research institute in the Baltic sea, now named the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. The institute was headed by Prof. Dr. Otto Waldmann from 1909–48, while Traub was vice-president.[7]

The Institute at Riems Island was a dual use facility during the Second World War where at least some biological warfare experiments were conducted. It had been founded originally in 1909-10 to study foot-and-mouth disease in animals and by World War II employed about 20 scientists and a staff of 70-120. Hanns-Christoph Nagel, a veterinarian and biological warfare expert for the German Army, conducted experiments there, as did Traub.[7]

Traub worked under Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, who in 1943 took over the Innenministerium (Ministry of the Interior), and specialized in viral and bacterial diseases. The chain of command was Himmler, Dr. Leonardo Conti (Reich Health Leader), Kurt Blome, Waldmann, and then Traub. He was assisted by Anna Burger, who was also brought to the United States after the fall of the Nazi Regime, to work with the Navy's biological warfare program.[8]

On orders from Himmler and Blome, the Deputy Reich Health Leader and head of the German biological warfare program, he had also worked on weaponizing foot-and-mouth disease virus, which was dispersed by aircraft onto cattle and reindeer in Russia.[9] In 1944, Blome ordered Traub to pick up a strain of Rinderpest virus in Turkey; upon his return, this strain proved inactive (nonvirulent) and therefore plans for a Rinderpest vaccine had to be shelved.[1]

Post war

Immediately after the war Traub was trapped in the Soviet zone of Allied occupied Germany. He was forced to work for the Soviets from his lab on Riems Island.[10] In July 1948, the British evacuated Erich Traub from Riems Island as a "high priority Intelligence target" since it was now in the Soviet Zone and they feared that Traub was assisting in their biological warfare program. Traub denied this, however, claiming that his only interest was foot-and-mouth disease in animals.[11]

Traub was brought to the United States in 1949 under the auspices of the United States government program Operation Paperclip, meant to exploit scientific knowledge gained during Nazi rule in Germany.[2] From 1949 - 1953 he was associated with the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, MD.[7]

Just months into his Operation Paperclip contract, Traub was asked to meet with US scientists from Fort Detrick, the Army’s biological warfare headquarters, in Frederick, Maryland. As a noted German authority on viruses he was asked to consult on their ani-mal disease program from a Biological Warfare perspective. Traub discussed work done at the Reich Research Institute for Virus Diseases of Animals on Riems Island during World War II for the Nazis, and work done after the war there for the Russians. Traub’s detailed explanation of the secret operation at the Institute, and his activities there. This information provided the ground work for Fort Detrick's offshore germ warfare animal diseased lab on Plum Island.[6]

In 1951, he published a report for the Naval Medical Research Institute on Newcastle Disease virus in chicken and mammalian blood. cells[12] Two years later, he published a paper for the Navy on the mechanisms of immunity in chickens to Newcastle and the possible role of cellular factors.[13] Also in 1953, he published another paper for the Navy with Worth I. Capps on the foot-and-mouth disease virus and methods for rapid adaptation.[14]

Traub served as an expert on Foot-and-mouth disease for the FAO of the UN in Bogota, Colombia, from 1951–1952, in Tehran, Iran, from 1963–1967, and in Ankara, Turkey, from 1969-1971.

Return to Germany

After working on biological warfare for the Navy in the U.S. from 1949–53, Traub founded and led a new branch of the Loeffler Institut in Tübingen, Germany, and headed it from 1953 to 1963.[15] In 1960, Traub resigned as Tubingen’s director due to the scandal related to accusations of financial embezzlement. He continued with limited lab research for three more years, but then ended his career at Tubingen.[10]

In 1964, however, Traub also did a study for the Army Biological labs in Frederick, Maryland on Eastern Equine Encephalomyeltitis (EEE) immunity in white mice and its relationship to Lymphocytic choriomeningitis (LCM), which had long been a research interest of his.[16]

He retired from the West German civil service in 1971. In 1972, on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich Traub received an honorary doctorate degree in Veterinary Medicine for his achievements in basic and applied Virology (basic research on LCM; definition and diagnosis of type strains of FMD and their variants; development of adsorbate vaccines against fowl plague, Teschner disease of swine, and erysipelas of swine).

On May 18, 1985, Traub died unexpectedly in his sleep in West Germany. He was seventy-eight years old.[10]

Bio-weapon research

In theory, insects of all types, particularly the biting and stinging kinds, can be used as disease vectors in a biological warfare program. Germany, Japan, Britain, Russia and the U.S. all conducted experiments along these lines during the Second World War, and the Japanese used such insect-borne diseases against both soldiers and civilians in China. This was one reason that President Franklin Roosevelt and Secretary of War Henry Stimson ordered the creation of an American biological warfare program in 1942, which was headquartered at Camp Detrick, Maryland. This eventually grew to a very large facility with 245 buildings and a $60 million budget, including a Entomological Weapons Department that mass produced flies, lice and mosquitoes as disease vectors. Although the British bio-weapon facility at Porton Down concentrated on the production of anthrax bombs, it also conducted experiments on insects as vectors.

After the war, the Army's 406th Medical General Laboratory in Japan cooperated with former scientists from Unit 731 in experimenting with many different insect vectors, including lice, flies, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, spiders and beetles to carry a wide variety of diseases, from cholera to meningitis. At Fort Detrick in the late-1940s, Theodore Rosebury also rated insect vectors very highly, and its entomological division had at least three insect-vectored weapons ready for use by 1950. Some of these were later tested at the Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, and allegedly used during the Korean War as well.[17]

Traub visited the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) in New York on at least three occasions in the 1950s. The Plum Island facility, operated by the Department of Agriculture, conducted research on foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) of cattle, one of

Traub's areas of expertise.[1] Traub was offered a leading position at Plum Island in 1958 which he declined. It has been alleged that the United States performed bioweapons research on Plum Island.[1][18]

Fort Terry on Plum Island was part of the U.S. biological warfare program in 1944-46, working on veterinary testing in connection with the weaponization of brucellosis. After the war, research on biological weapons continued at Pine Bluff in Arkansas and Fort Detrick, Maryland, while officially at least Plum Island was transferred to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.[19] From 1949, Plum Island also conducted work on biological weapons against animals and livestock, such as foot-and-mouth disease, Rinderpest, Newcastle disease, African swine fever and plague and malaria in birds. Traub's biological warfare work from the Second World War onward involved at least the first three of these.[20]

29.-Gordon WoodsGordon Woods (July 14, 1952 - August 20, 2009) was an American veterinary scientist who co-created Idaho Gem, the world's first cloned mule.[1]

Early life

Woods was born on July 14, 1952, and was raised in northern Idaho.[1] He obtained his bachelor's degree from the University of Idaho. Woods received a doctorate of veterinary medicine from Colorado State University.[1] He later obtained a second doctorate in reproductive biology from the University of Wisconsin.[1]

Career

Woods first taught veterinary medicine at Cornell University.[1]

Woods founded the Northwest Equine Reproduction Laboratory in Idaho in 1986.[1] He moved to Washington state, where he taught at the University of Washington until he joined the faculty of the University of Idaho in 1988 as an Animal and Veterinary Science Department professor.[1]

Woods, along with colleagues Dr. Dirk Vanderwall and Dr. Ken White of Utah State University, led a team of scientists in 2003 that cloned Idaho Gem, the world's first cloned mule.[1] The cloning of Idaho Gem was a part of a larger scientific study intended to understand human diseases.[1] Horses, mules and other equines have lower rates of cancer than humans.[1] Woods, Vanderwall, White and their team hoped that the cloning of mules and other equines would provide an important scientific insight into the different cancer rates between humans and equines.[1] Woods was particularly interested in the role that calcium played in the development of cancer.[1] Horses and mules have less calcium in their cell walls than humans.[1]

Woods' colleague, Dirk Vanderwall, later explained Woods' goals during the Idaho Gem cloning, "That certainly was another primary focus of Gordon's...to use the horse as a model to try to understand age-onset diseases in people. Gordon's hypothesis was that excessive intracellular calcium in human cells could be an underlying factor in age-onset diseases."[1]

Woods departed the University of Idaho in 2007 and joined the faculty of Colorado State University.[1] He became a professor in the school's College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Gordon Woods died unexpectedly at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, Colorado, on August 20, 2009, at the age of 57.[1] He was survived by his wife, Shauna, whom he had been married to for 37 years, four children, six grandchildren and his mother.[1]

30.-Abu ZacariaAbu Zacaria (XII century). His full name in Arabic was Abuzacaria ben Yahia Ibn Mohammed Ibn Ahmed el-Awam, briefly known among Muslims BenelaguamThe "Seville", having been born and lived in that city near which, in Aljarefe, had extensive land holdings, which were operated under his direction.

His book entitled Kitab al Felalhah (meaning Book of Agriculture) was translated into Spanish in 1802 by Father José Antonio Banqueri and subsequently published a new translation in 1878 by Claude Bentelón. A few years earlier, in 1864, wastranslated into French by Clement Mullet. A comprehensive study of it was made and published by Egaña Sanz in 1930. In the commentary says the historian:"The work shows great erudition Abuzacaría in the author, in his book quotes a hundred and twenty authors and summarizes all agricultural skills of the Nabataeans (Chaldeans,Persian), Greek (Aristotle mainly, and Hippocrates), Latino and Arabs. "

The book is divided into two books or parts. The first thirty chapters is devoted to agriculture. The next four deal exclusively with livestock issues, referrals, not onlyhorse, but also, the ox, sheep, goat, donkey, mule and camel. In them the author is concerned with the health, aging, defects, dressage, etc and of course of the disease, mainly the horse, which devotes Chapter XXXIII, describing a total of 111, grouped by region: head (eyes, nose, mouth and teeth), neck, trunk, limbs and internal diseases.The therapeutic part is wide, highlighting she purgatives and indents, which advisedlance practice in different veins the body. Deals also how Management drugs andnature of same in both vegetable field, as animal, and even some minerals. Surgery is treated quite widely, describing techniques of ablations, sutures, cauterization, bone fractures, interventions in helmets, including surgical techniques of cataract, and of course the castration.