Proceedings of the 44th International Congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine
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Proceedings of the 44th International Congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine held 27-29 February 2020 at The Farm Inn Hotel and Conference Centre, Pretoria, South Africa.
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Item Historic highlights of South African veterinary R&D in tropical diseases(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Bigalke, Rudolph; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)For the purposes of this address, tropical diseases are broadly defined as animal diseases and toxicoses that were unknown to European settlers and European-trained veterinarians when they came to South Africa. However, there is good evidence that indigenous pastoralist Khoi-Khoi and Nguni people recognised and sought to manage some of these diseases and exploit identified poisons long before the arrival of European colonists. The involvement of Sir Arnold Theiler, founder of Onderstepoort, in research and development in tropical diseases is so manifold that only the absolute highlights will be dealt with. It kicked off with co-developing the first safe and effective vaccine for rinderpest in 1896. Then followed the elucidation of the aetiology (Theileria parva) and epidemiology of East Coast fever. The next triumph was the discovery of the taxonomically unusual, erythrocytic parasite Anaplasma and the development of an effective blood vaccine. Although best known for his lamsiekte (botulism) research, Theiler’s involvement was somewhat controversial, as will be elucidated in the addressItem ‘No one over here has had the pluck to do [this]’ : international intercommunity collaboration and the investigation of canine inherited disease(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Skipper, Alison; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)In 1920s colonial India, an enthusiastic group of expatriate British officials occupied themselves by breeding Bull Terriers. However, these breeders complained that many of the dogs they imported from ‘Home’ subsequently proved to be congenitally deaf, or to produce deaf puppies. They claimed that many British breeders were knowingly exhibiting, breeding and exporting deaf dogs, even though such dogs were supposedly banned from the show ring. Although breeders in both countries knew that pure white Bull Terriers, which they generally preferred, were more likely to be deaf, there was no consensus on how to tackle the problem. An impassioned debate between fanciers in Britain and India came to a head in 1921. While some fanciers in India wanted to stop breeding from deaf dogs altogether, others urged instead for scientific research into the cause of the deafness, suggesting that Adair Dighton, a medically qualified Bull Terrier breeder in Britain, would be ideally placed to lead the project.Item Equine veterinarians in South Africa - 220 years of service(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Bath, Gareth F.; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Veterinarians in South Africa today are inclined to think their profession started with Arnold Theiler’s arrival in 1891 from Switzerland, or Duncan Hutcheon’s arrival in 1880, or even Samuel Wiltshire in 1874, all in the closing decades of the 19th Century. However, there is clear evidence of equine veterinary surgeons being active in the old Cape Colony from 1799, mainly with the British cavalry regiments that were sent to the country. One source states that 36 of 45 veterinarians active between 1800 and 1881 were in military service. Equine practitioners are clearly the oldest part of the veterinary profession in South Africa and have also made major contributions in the subsequent decadesItem A brief historical overview of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and its historical relationship with countries in southern Africa(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Brückner, Gideon; Teissier, Marie; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)The devastating effects of rinderpest in Europe in the 18th century resulted in a call from Professor John Gamgee, of the New Veterinary College of Edinburgh, to the Deans of Veterinary Faculties in Europe for an International Veterinary Congress in Hamburg on 24 March 1863 to ‘define the rules of prevention of contagious and epizootic diseases’ and to elaborate on establishing standardised sanitary legislation. However, in spite of the good intentions of the call from Prof Gamgee, this vision of harmonised intergovernmental control over the spread of animal diseases only materialised 60 years later, when rinderpest was re-introduced into Europe together with ongoing epizootics of tuberculosis, dourine and rabies as an aftermath of World War I. This resulted in a letter dated 1 October 1920, by Mr Ricard (French Minister of Agriculture) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, to convene an international conference to be held in Paris on 21 May 1921 to examine the animal health situation in particular with regard to rinderpest, foot and mouth disease and dourine. The conference also aimed to encourage the exchange of animal health information between countries and to harmonise export health measures. In addition, it was stated by the Ministry that surveillance and control of epizootics are also of interest to public health because of the transmissibility of certain diseases of animals to man. Forty-two States, mainly from Europe, heeded the call that an International Office of Epizootics for the control of infectious animal diseases be created and set up in Paris. It is interesting to note that the participants at the conference initially pleaded strongly that the proposed Organisation should be part of the Office International d’Hygiène. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74403)Item Making plague a tropical disease(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Jones, Susan; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Although bubonic plague is not one of the major veterinary diseases of South Africa, it played an important role in the scientific history of the Union. In turn, international conceptions of the disease were shaped by scientists from the Veterinary Research Institute at Onderstepoort and the South African Institute for Medical Research, among others. Due to the South African experience, plague became a tropical disease, endemic in a rural landscape south of the equator. Plague came to South Africa in 1899-1900 through the port cities of Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, and Durban. With the first cases and ensuing panic, public health officials began “sanitizing” these cities (especially poor neighbourhoods inhabited by people of color) by quarantining people, killing rats, disinfecting and even burning whole neighbourhoods. By 1910, government health officials congratulated themselves that the disease had been eliminated in South Africa. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74403)Item Bloodlines and bloodlies – the equine experiment in Africa(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Swart, Sandra; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)This lecture focuses on the responsibilities – indeed, duties – of an historian today. It asks about the value - asks how do we write about them now? In this time of global crisis, with a world on fire in many senses of the word, what can historians do in and about the Anthropocene? A key approach – so evident from all of us gathered here at this conference – is writing “more than human history”. Because one way to render the past edifyingly unfamiliar in these strange times is to reconstruct histories of the ultimate others – to tell a multi-species story. What I want to do today is reconsider horsepower in reconsidering the great equine experiment in history of Africa – an experiment almost 400 years old in southern Africa. I want us to see how we can write it: because as fires burn around literally and figuratively, we do have a duty as historians to respond with the stories we choose to tell. It is impossible to ignore the changing animal body’s relationship with the changing body politic. Animal bodies are sites where human histories are contested and fancies and fantasies are enacted. Horse bodies changed and were changed by their move to Africa and the great equine experiment on the continent. The first hardy, rugged ponies developed through anthropogenic selection coupled to a harsh and rapid process of survival of the fittest to survive a new and hostile environment. They became a key technology of conquest used in multiple arenas - in exploration, in transport, in farming and in war – but from the early nineteenth century they were replaced by a new kind of creature who could do only one thing well: run. Once racing was entrenched under the British occupation, there was a concomitant recalibration of what ‘good horseflesh’ meant. The common herd of horses was leavened by the importation of pedigreed Thoroughbred horses. In so doing, breeders tapped a social vein. They fed the public’s growing thirst for blue-blooded horses as desirable commodities to white settlers who were beginning to consider their own sanguinary consequence. A key point is that discourses of breeding were not hermetically sealed away from political discourses. Breeding debates, in both state and popular milieu, drew on ideas about race, class and gender. The blood-based idiom spread and changed as the ideas of animal breeders and their buying public became a synthesis of folk belief and fresh scientific advances. This combination, epitomised by faith in the pedigree beasts ‘of pure race’, drew on and sustained the popular vocabulary of race theory that was strongly evident in the colony. Although the Thoroughbreds may have been granted some relief from the menial burdens carried by the other horses of the colony, perhaps they carried a heavier load still: the egos and self-identity of the elite. Horses were, however, more than just signifiers of elite status, they could contribute towards creating elite status. Once the public was persuaded that pedigree and purity actually mattered, there was serious money to be made as a thoroughbred breeder. Ironically, the elitist insistence on the primacy of blood and populist fears about polluted and tainted blood, actually contributed to the ‘breed’s’ downfall. Buyers infatuated by Thoroughbred bloodlines snubbed the qualities of the other horses, the hybrid pool homogenous enough to be branded a breed – the so-called Cape Horse, which thus lost robustness and utility – and even its ability to survive in Africa. Human obsession with mixing – perceived variously as mongrelisation, miscegenation, and bastardising in the animal world – works through transference, to explain, rationalize and patrol the human socio-political hierarchy. The vocabulary of breed and breeding wordlessly encrypts human fears, fantasies and fictions in racial rhetoric and sexual stratification. The world of animal breeders has sustained, until late into the twentieth century some of the most antiquated ideas like telegony (sustained by and, arguably, sustaining socio-political ideas codified into apartheid) where foals and calves and puppies (and human babies) were considered forever stained by their mother’s original sin of carnal categorical crossing. So, ‘blood did tell’, but it exposed far more about the humans consumed by it, than it did about the horses in whose changing bodies it flowed.Item Preserving South Africa’s veterinary history : a collaborative approach(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Swanepoel, David; Breytenbach, Amelia; Coetsee, Tertia; Marsh, Susan; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)The history of veterinary science and education in South Africa is embedded within the colonial history of South Africa and is essential to understand and appreciate its contribution to the well-being of the country. Observations on unknown animal diseases that occurred during this historical period in South Africa were documented into written descriptions like journal articles and theses and captured as photos and glass negatives. A vast collection of historical material is available through commercial publications, but it is often grey literature such as archival material, which is difficult to locate, that is crucial to complete the picture. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item The historical collections of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Munich : lost and hidden treasures(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Goebel, Veronika; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Research into the lost and hidden treasures of the historical collections provides insights into the 230-year history of teaching at the veterinary faculty in Munich. Today, the collections no longer occupy the position in teaching and research they had enjoyed in earlier centuries, as new media and learning techniques have replaced the two- and three-dimensional objects. In the last decade, however, the value and scientific importance of university collections has been recognized, but financial support to maintain and display them is rarely provided. As shown with the historical examples, the establishment and maintenance of the collections included not only an academic but also a social component. Indeed, the collegial exchange by lending specimens or giving away surplus objects within the faculty as well as with external practitioners, international researchers and institutions clearly enriched existing collections, which is illustrated best by the specimens donated by Dr. Theiler. With a view to preserving these collections as a basis of scientific research for future generations of veterinarians, the inventory and digitalization of historical veterinary collections as well as the organization of national and international networks represents key challenges for the coming years. (Read the full article in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Notable veterinary parasitologists of South Africa(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Heyne, Heloise; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Veterinary parasitologists in South Africa have played a crucial role in elucidating the causes and transmission of many major animal diseases, and in establishing life cycles and control measures that were appropriate to manage these serious conditions in economically effective ways. South Africa had many diseases that baffled early investigators and diligent, persistent investigation was necessary to find the links to a wide variety of internal and external parasites. Since the establishment of the Veterinary Faculty at Onderstepoort in 1920, parasitology as a subject has been an important part of the curriculum and courses in helminthology, ecto-parasitology and protozoal diseases were featured for a total of 165 hours in 1994. (Verster, 1994). (Read full article in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Jaundice in sheep in South Africa – confusion and resolution(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Bath, Gareth F.; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Veterinarians trained in Europe dominated the research fraternity in South Africa up to the Second World War and scientific knowledge and investigations were therefore based on what was known in Europe or other countries with long veterinary traditions. When faced with the many baffling, unknown diseases of Africa, early investigators trained in Europe floundered. Jaundice in sheep was encountered in many different circumstances and could be accompanied by other signs, notably photosensitisation. Confusion resulted, not helped by the many observations and opinions of farmers, who had given the condition the name of ‘geeldikkop’ or yellow swelled head. As Theiler noted, farmers were great observers but poor analysts of their observations. (read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item A study of the ecology of anthrax in the Kruger National Park, South Africa(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) De Vos, Valerius; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)The ecology of anthrax in the Kruger National Park (KNP) in South Africa is described. Endemic anthrax occurs in the northern-most region of the KNP with sporadic cases seen almost annually. In addition, regular periodic epidemic outbreaks occur in the northern half of the KNP with inter-epidemic periods of between 10 and 30 years. These outbreaks were studied over a period of roughly 40 years, providing ideal opportunities to evaluate anthrax in an essentially natural setting with minimal interference by man. Several complex and interrelated patterns of disease occurrence and determinants were identified and described. Anthrax appears to be unique in the sense that it is the only disease within the KNP, or possibly world-wide, that needs to kill its host in order to propagate. It has however adapted to the KNP ecosystem in being density dependent and self-limiting, leaving in its wake viable young populations of animals. Anthrax should therefore be viewed in terms of its effect on the population and ecosystem rather than on the individual, where the death of individuals may actually be of benefit to the populations and ecosystem. It was therefore seen as an ideal natural population regulatory mechanism in a natural setting such as the KNP, having also a predilection towards older animals, leaving behind a younger population. However, in a totally fenced-in setting like the KNP, it may be subjected to ‘unnatural’ outside effects such as fences, fires and unnatural pressure on water, which may place certain marginal and highly vulnerable species such as roan antelope at risk. This has led to a situation of minimal control procedures of anthrax in the KNP. It is argued that this very complex and interrelated epidemiological web of causation and the evidence of a possible mutually beneficial relationship between the agent, host populations and KNP ecosystem, could only have developed as a result of co-evolution, which indicates that anthrax is indigenous to Africa and endemic to the KNP and southern Africa. Therefore the word ‘ecology’ is used in preference to ‘epidemiology’ to describe the effects of Bacilius antracis on a near-natural system such as the KNPItem South African veterinary bacteriologists(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Henton, Maryke M.; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Microbial techniques and apparatus had been sufficiently developed by the second half of the 19th century to enable veterinarians to diagnose and study diseases unique to Africa, as well as those diseases carried by imported livestock. The unusual animal diseases encountered in Africa received attention from researchers such as Robert Koch and David Bruce when they worked in South Africa. When Arnold Theiler arrived in South Africa in 1891 as a young veterinarian, he was disappointed to find that few farmers would employ him, as they were used to treating their own animals. To augment his earnings, he, assisted by his wife, Emma, prepared smallpox vaccine during an outbreak in the mining camp of Johannesburg in 1892. Theiler’s initial interest in preparing effective vaccines laid the basis for the future of veterinary research in South Africa. Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Heartwater : a simple disease with a peculiar distribution that has exasperated farmers and scientists for eons(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Pettey, Kenneth P.; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Heartwater (previously cowdriosis) is a disease caused by a rickettsia, Ehrlichia ruminantium (previously Cowdria ruminantium). It was first recognised and recorded in South Africa by the Voortrekker Louis Trichardt in 1838. It affects many ruminants and is present in all countries in Africa south of the Sahara, some islands around Africa and in the Caribbean. The disease is transmitted by the Amblyomma (bont or patterned) tick and if not treated, usually results in death. Symptoms include high fever, hypersensitivity with other nervous signs, and generalised oedema seen as accumulation of fluid in the lungs, brain, thoracic cavity and pericardial sac. The distribution of the disease corresponds closely to that of its vectors. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item The history of East Coast fever in Southern Africa(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Mans, Ben J. (Barend Johannes); World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)The history of East Coast fever (ECF) spans more than 120 years and it is simply too vast and intricate to do justice to it by trying to give a detailed presentation of all the relevant events, facts and personas associated with this interesting but devastating disease. Comprehensive histories of ECF have been penned that deal with the minutiae of events that comprise its narrative (Lawrence, 1986; Norval et al., 1992). The current study will therefore focus on a question that does touch on ECF history and remains topical: “Was Theileria parva present in South Africa prior to ECF introduction, and was it ever eradicated?” (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Eminent South African veterinary virologists(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Verwoerd, Daniel Wynand; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Virology is a relatively young scientific discipline only recognised at the Onderstepoort institute as a separate science in the mid-1950s by the establishment of an independent Section Virology. Before that, research on viruses was mainly carried out in its Section Protozoology and contributions were made by researchers in various other disciplines. For the present review important contributions to our knowledge of viruses and viral diseases will be discussed and only the main contributors identified. Fittingly the first breakthrough was the proof by Arnold Theiler in 1905 that the agent causing bluetongue {BT} in sheep is a virus by means of filterability studies, following in the footsteps of M’Fadyean who similarly proved in 1900 in London that African Horsesickness (AHS) is caused by a virus. Theiler also developed the first vaccines for both diseases consisting of infected blood from donor animals followed by hyper immune serum. He also developed the concept of antigenic multiplicity to explain failures after using the vaccines. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Reduction of antibiotic use in farm animal and aquaculture production in Norway over the last 30 years(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Hektoen, Halvor; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Antibacterial agents were used long before people knew that infections were caused by bacteria, and were described in ancient Egypt, Greece and in the Roman empire. However, in modern medicine the ‘antibiotic revolution’ started in 1928 when Sir Alexander Fleming characterized the bactericidal effect of penicillin. With further effort from Ernst B Chain and Sir Howard Flory, mass production started in the early 1940s, and penicillin was then available for widespread commercial use. Fleming, Chain and Flory received the Nobel Prize in 1945. During World War II penicillin was significantly beneficial and saved many lives, and by the end of the war, penicillin was nicknamed “the wonder drug”. However, effectiveness and easy access also led to overuse, and it did not take long before some bacteria developed resistance. To overcome the resistance challenge pharmaceutical companies made large investments to find new types of antibiotics, and for a long time, the industry was able to develop new drugs to compensate for the older ones. This is not the situation now, and we have lost our competitive position against the bacteria (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item The Swiss connection : Arnold Theiler and Swiss colleagues an early example of a successful international veterinary cooperation(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Pospischil, Andreas; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)The start of the Swiss veterinary connection dates back to the late 19th century when a shortage of veterinarians in Transvaal motivated M. Constançon, the Swiss ambassador to the ZAR in 1890, to inform his home country. The message reached Erwin Zschokke (1855-1929) of the Zurich Veterinary School and Wilhelm Kolle (1868-1935) of the Medical Faculty, University of Bern. Since veterinary practice in Switzerland was not profitable, graduates were interested in alternatives abroad. The Zurich graduates Arnold Theiler (1867-1936), Peter Lys (Lis) (1865-1913), and Emil Tüller (1870-1905) discussed emigration. Tüller wanted to stay, Theiler and Lys (Lis) decided to emigrate. Lys finally decided to stay in Switzerland. Theiler went by himself. His veterinary equipment was lost on the trip but he nevertheless started a veterinary practice in Pretoria. However, the Swiss curriculum did not include “tropical diseases” and it is no wonder that his practice was unsuccessful. To gain experience he decided to work as a farm hand for A. H. Nellmapius (1847-1893). Theiler learned how to deal with tropical diseases and, following the advice of Zschokkes, he performed as many post-mortems as possible. During an accident at the farm he lost his left hand in a chaff cutter and had to use an artificial hand, a fact that he tried to hide for the rest of his life. In 1892 Theiler reopened a successful veterinary practice in Pretoria. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)Item Collaboration between the veterinary schools of Utrecht and Onderstepoort - a political history(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Koolmees, Peter A.; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)Until late in the 19th century, Utrecht University played a very important role in providing academic training for South African students. Professors at Utrecht stressed the Dutch roots of the Boers and supported their cause. The board of the veterinary faculty encouraged collaboration with colleagues from the veterinary school at Onderstepoort. Not only would this broaden the scientific horizon, but also create jobs for Dutch vets in South Africa, in addition to employment in the Dutch East Indies. Hence, the connection with Onderstepoort was framed in the context of colonial veterinary medicine. The collaboration became concrete. In 1931 Phillipus Fourie, deputy director of Veterinary Services at Onderstepoort, became the first foreigner to receive a PhD in veterinary medicine at Utrecht University. Otto Nieschulz from Utrecht was a guest lecturer at Onderstepoort in 1931 and 1933. Sir Arnold Theiler received an honorary doctorate from Utrecht University in 1936. Theiler’s successor, Petrus du Toit, was awarded the title ‘Doctor honoris causa’ in Utrecht in 1948, the same year in which apartheid was officially adopted in South Africa. In the 1960s and 1970s ethical debates on the colonial heritage were held within Dutch politics. The post-colonial era witnessed a shift from colonial exploitation to development collaboration. While attention was mainly focused on new collaboration with Indonesia, the relation with South Africa became more and more uneasy. The dubious role Dutchmen had played in this former colony, ultimately resulting in apartheid, was heavily criticized. In addition to the international boycott after 1960, the Netherlands imposed a cultural and academic boycott against South Africa in 1986. After the abolition of apartheid in 1990, rapprochement between Utrecht University and South African universities took place. This was part of a broader development collaboration between Utrecht University and universities in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The new contact with the old partner led to chairs established in both cities. Frans Jongejan from Utrecht was appointed as extraordinary professor in tropical veterinary medicine at Onderstepoort, while Koos Coetzer from Pretoria became part-time professor in tropical animal health at the veterinary faulty in Utrecht in 2001. Since then, research projects are being carried out while postgraduate courses are taught with mutual participation.Item Regulating Rumensin : defining antibiotic feeds in the U.S. in the wake of resistance(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Welk-Joerger, Nicole; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)This paper emphasizes the need to tell more histories about the specific cultural and chemical properties of antibiotic livestock feed to better understand its adoption and use in the past and today. The existing literature about U.S. antibiotics in food production provides important but generalized takes of agriculture’s “antibiotic era.” The history of on-the-farm antibiotics demonstrates how historical alliances between producers and scientists formed, how shifting definitions of abundance and purity impacted antibiotic adoption, and how science has been used to “manufacture uncertainty” about the impact of these technologies. Despite these contributions, few address the differences that exist between antibiotics, or how these differences affect their development, adoption, regulation, and use. To stress the particularities of antibiotics, this paper tells the story of Eli Lilly’s Rumensin from the lab to the trough. The history of Rumensin details why it is difficult to regulate some agricultural antibiotics in the United States. Since its inception in 1975, Rumensin has largely been seen by scientists, policy makers, and producers as the “successor” or “replacement” feed technology to prior problematic ones: namely sulfaquinoxaline, which became inefficient for treating coccidiosis, and diethylstilbestrol, which proved carcinogenic. Rumensin was also one of the first feed additives developed for exclusive use in agricultural animals. Rumensin’s chemical compound, called monensin, had not been used in human medicine prior to its adoption and use in livestock farming, like most other antibiotics had been. This strict definition as a medication for non-human animals continues to contribute to Rumensin’s exemption from a Food and Drug Administration defined Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) drug status. Further, a focus on the use of Rumensin in cattle shows how decades-long debates about it has hinged on how scientists, farmers, policy makers, and the public understand what monensin does in cattle bodies. When Eli Lilly first marketed Rumensin in the U.S., they emphasized its role in the rumen as a feed-to-food converter rather than as an antibiotic coccidiostat. Their advertisements focused on the role of the rumen, which Lilly illustrated with a glowing white orb placed on the stomach on a steer. To cattle farmers in the late 1970s, Rumensin’s status as a “feed efficiency tool” seemed inferior to DES’s status as a growth promotant. However, over time, policy makers argued that Rumensin was the ideal DES successor as an alternative growth promotant. The way monensin worked at the cellular level led to an entirely different scientific classification of antimicrobial – the ionophore – which popularized as a term in agricultural communities that hoped to avoid publicly-charged hormone and antibiotic feeding. However, the term “ionophore” had little significance outside agricultural and regulatory infrastructures, which has caused confusion and tension across later debates about agricultural antibiotics through today. Future use of monensin for beef and milk production will depend on how experts distinguish ionophores from other antibiotics, the role of monensin as a methane inhibitor in the wake of the climate crisis, as well as its potential use for human medicine, including as a cancer treatment.Item Eradicating foot and mouth disease in North America, 1946-1954(Pretoria : World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, 2020-02) Kaplan, Rebecca; World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine. International Congress (44th : 2020 : Pretoria, South Africa)During the early twentieth century, Canada, Mexico, and the United States governments coordinated to prevent foot and mouth disease from entering their borders. These policies facilitated the trade of livestock and related products across the Mexico-United States and Canada-United States borders, in particular cattle and hay. Outbreaks of the disease in Mexico and Canada in the 1940s and 1950s threatened the free movement of people, animals, and goods as the United States implemented border closures and importation bans. In each country, veterinarians, livestock owners, politicians, and government officials debated how to prevent foot-and-mouth disease from spreading and restore the normal movement of non-human animals between the nations. These discussions raised larger questions about the technical and financial plans to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease, different modes of intergovernmental cooperation, sovereignty, and the borders. (Read full abstract in the WAHVM 2020 proceedings https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/74425)