Ernest Arthur Kendall: his life in peace and war

Ernest Arthur Kendall (1876-1938), whose father founded the first veterinary school in Australia, qualified as a veterinary surgeon, as did three of his brothers. He was commissioned in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps and fought with distinction in both the Boer War and World War I. He established an Australian Veterinary Hospital near Calais, France, in 1917. The Purple Cross Society of Victoria paid for the fit-out and necessary material for the running of the hospital, which treated 24,300 animals before it closed in 1919. In that year, Colonel Kendall resumed his career in the Department of Agriculture Victoria, where he was appointed Chief Veterinary Officer in 1926 and Chairman of the Milk Board in 1934. He worked toward a pure milk supply, enabled the establishment of a laboratory to test milk samples, and looked forward to a well-planned campaign for the eradication of bovine tuberculosis.     

Thomas Henry Hankin,B.V.Sc., M.R.C.V.S.

Extract

Tommy Hankin was born in 1888. He graduated from the Melbourne Veterinary School in 1914. He soon joined the A.I.F. and served in the war as Veterinary Officer in Egypt and in France. After the war he went to Edinburgh and obtained his M.R.C.V.S. and then returned to New Zealand and set up practice in Pukekohe. In 1927 he joined the Department of Agriculture as a Veterinarian and was stationed successively in Wanganui, Masterton and Whangarei before his appointment as Livestock Superintendent, Auckland, where he stayed until his retirement in 1953. After he retired he moved to Pukekohe and was kept busy with land and livestock until his sudden death on November 1, 1971.     

Veterinary medical work of Johann Christian Polycarp Erxleben, the first teacher of veterinary medicine in Germany]

Erxleben could be regarded as the founder of the modern, systematic and scientific training of verterinary surgeons in Germany. Thanks to an open-minded up-bringing and a large interest in other scientific fields beyond his medical studies he acquired the ideal basis to turn veterinary medicine into a subject at university. He acquired his knowledge in veterinary medicine by reading numerous veterinary books and by visiting the Netherlands and France and the expert of horses Johann Baptist von Sind. Since 1770 he started with veterinary lessons. When planning his teaching, he tried to avoid the mistakes made by the first schools in France. In order to do so he attached a great importance to a fundamental but practical training. Erxleben also wrote two volumes about veterinary medicine, which he used as a literary basis for his lessons.     

Resistance of Santa Ines, Suffolk and Ile de France sheep to naturally acquired gastrointestinal nematode infections

A study was conducted to assess the breed resistance against nematode infections in Santa Ines, Ile de France and Suffolk male lambs over a 9-month period in S?o Paulo state, Brazil. Lambs were born during the winter (year 2000) and were weaned at 2 months of age. The animals were then housed and treated with anthelmintics to eliminate natural infections by gastrointestinal nematodes. In late October 2000, lambs were placed in a paddock, where they stayed until August of the following year. Fecal and blood samples were taken from each animal every 2 weeks. On the same day, a pasture sample was collected to determine the number of infective larvae on the herbage. To prevent deaths, individual treatment with anthelmintics was provided to lambs with fecal egg counts (FEC) higher than 4000 eggs per gram (EPG) or with a packed cell volume (PCV) lower than 21%. In August 2001, all animals were slaughtered and the worms present in samples of the gastrointestinal contents were identified and counted. Most of the Suffolk and Ile de France sheep received three to six anthelmintic treatments over a period of 7 months, while most of the Santa Ines were not treated. Reductions in PCV and plasma protein values associated with high FEC and worm burdens were recorded, particularly, in Suffolk and Ile de France lambs. Haemonchus contortus and Oesophagostomum columbianum burdens and number of nodular lesions caused in the large intestine by O. columbianum larvae were significantly lower in Santa Ines sheep. All three breeds showed similar Trichostrongylus colubriformis worm burdens. The relative resistance of Santa Ines young male sheep was superior to that of Suffolk and Ile de France sheep.     

Obituary - Dudley Arthur Gill

Extract

D. A. Gill died in Sydney on May 1, 1973, at the age of 72. He received his training at the Royal Veterinary College, London, where he qualified in 1922. He then did a Diploma of Veterinary State Medicine at Edinburgh. He joined the New Zealand Department of Agriculture as a Veterinary Officer and from 1928 he was second in charge at the Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory. While he was at Wallaceville he did some first-class research on the problems of listeriosis and enterotoxaemia. The house that he built at Wallaceville he later sold to his friend Dr I. J. Cunningham.     

Prion protein genetic polymorphisms and breeding strategies in Portuguese breeds of sheep

Polymorphisms at the prion protein locus were studied in 965 animals, representative of 13 native and 3 exotic sheep breeds in Portugal. In general, ARQ was the predominant allele in most breeds, but the desirable ARR allele was present in all breeds studied. A different pattern was found in Ile de France, where ARR was predominant and VRQ had the highest frequency among the breeds analysed. In most of the breeds, especially in those of the coarse-wool type, the major hurdle in selecting for genetic resistance to clinical scrapie was the elimination of ARQ rather than VRQ alleles. Breeding schemes aiming at the creation of ARR-homozygous selection nuclei were simulated for representative breeds, and results indicate that, with intense selection, it would take between 4 years in Ile de France and 11 years in Mondegueira to obtain homozygosity in the nucleus, and the length of time needed for fixation was not affected by the type of mating (random or assortative) used. Nevertheless, intense selection for the PrP genotype alone would have undesirable consequences in terms of inbreeding, and correlated responses in production and adaptation traits should be evaluated before such a scheme is adopted.     

All-purpose veterinary education: a personal perspective

The Recognition Lecture is an annual honor awarded by the Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC) to an individual whose leadership and vision have made significant contributions to academic veterinary medicine and the veterinary profession. In 2011, this prestigious honor was awarded to Dr. Peter Eyre, Dean Emeritus of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM). Dr. Eyre is a fierce advocate for veterinary medical education, with a clear vision of its value in ensuring that veterinarians are well positioned to meet societal needs. Dr. Eyre possesses an international perspective regarding the challenges and problems facing veterinary medical education and has a keen eye for getting to the heart of these challenges. He is known to ask hard questions and propose difficult choices. Dr. Eyre received his undergraduate veterinary degree (BVMS), bachelor of science degree, and PhD from the University of Edinburgh. He was Lecturer in Pharmacology at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies for seven years before joining the faculty of the University of Guelph's Ontario Veterinary College, where he was Chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Associate Director of the Canadian Centre for Toxicology. Dr. Eyre was appointed Dean of the VMRCVM in 1985, where he established the Center for Government and Corporate Veterinary Medicine in 1989. After retiring in 2003, he was named Interim Dean of the University of Calgary's new veterinary school. Among his many awards are the Norden Distinguished Teacher Award and the Sigma Psi Excellence in Research Award. In 2008 the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) honored him with the President's Award, and in 2010 the University of Edinburgh awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery. The Peter Eyre Student Leadership Award at the VMRCVM and the Peter Eyre Prize in Pharmacology at the University of Guelph are both named in his honor. He is a past president of the AAVMC, a fellow and former board member of the American Academy of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and a former member of the AVMA Legislative Advisory Committee. In the following article, Dr. Eyre offers his insights on the current debate about the future of veterinary medical education.     

Relationship of abomasal histology and parasite-specific immunoglobulin A with the resistance to Haemonchus contortus infection in three breeds of sheep

This study was carried out to evaluate the relationship of abomasal inflammatory cells and parasite-specific immunoglobulin A (IgA) in mucus, with the resistance to Haemonchus contortus infection in three breeds of sheep naturally infected with gastrointestinal nematodes. The breeds were the native Santa Ines sheep, and the European Suffolk and Ile de France breeds. Mast cells, eosinophils and globule leucocytes were enumerated in abomasal mucosa. Eosinophils within the sub-mucosa also were counted separately. Histamine concentration was estimated in abomasal tissue samples. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was carried out in mucus samples to determine the level of IgA anti-H. contortus third and fifth instar. There were no significant differences among group means of these variables (P>0.05). The correlation coefficients between fecal egg counts (FEC)xmast cells (r=-0.490; P<0.05) and FECxeosinophils in sub-mucosa (r=-0.714; P<0.01) was significant in the Santa Ines sheep. In the Ile de France group, the correlation coefficients between globule leucocytesxFEC (r=-0.879; P<0.001) and histaminexworm burden (r=-0.833; P<0.01) were also significant. In the Santa Ines and Ile de France sheep, correlation coefficients between IgA anti-L3xworm burden and IgA anti-L3xFEC were negative. In general, inflammatory cells and IgA-parasite-specific in abomasum were inversely associated with H. contortus worm burden and FEC indicating that they may impair parasite development or fecundity in the three breeds of sheep. However, similar mean values of inflammatory cells and IgA were found in the resistant (Santa Ines) and in the susceptible (Suffolk and Ile de France) breeds of sheep. The enumeration of cells by histological assessment does not provide information on their functional activity, which may be different among breeds. Thus, the effect of breed on the functional activity of these and other inflammatory cells is an important area for further study.     

Influence of protein supplementation during late pregnancy and lactation on the resistance of Santa Ines and Ile de France ewes to Haemonchus contortus

This experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of periparturient metabolizable protein (MP) nutrition on resistance to Haemonchus contortus in single rearing Ile de France and Santa Ines ewes. The restriction-fed iso-energetic diet was calculated to provide either 0.8 (low MP diet) or 1.3 (high MP diet) times MP, from three weeks before parturition until eight weeks into lactation. The ewes were experimentally infected with 1000 H. contortus infective larvae (L3) three times a week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), starting five weeks before the predicted date for parturition until a total of 15,000 L3 had been administered. While both breeds showed elevated fecal egg counts (FEC), these values were significantly lower for Santa Ines ewes than Ile de France ewes, but were independent of level of MP feeding. The latter also did not affect lamb weight gain and ewe body weight variation in each breed. Packed cell volume and total plasma protein for Santa Ines in all periods were significantly higher than those for Ile de France ewes (P<0.01) but were not affected by nutrition. In contrast, levels of serum IgG and IgA antibodies against somatic H. contortus infective larvae and adult antigens were similar between breeds but higher in animals that received high MP diets (P<0.05). The reduced body score of ewes at the beginning of the experiment probably influenced their high susceptibility to incoming larvae. Since, unexpectedly, MP scarcity was not achieved in this experiment, our data support the view that Santa Ines ewes are more resistant to H. contortus than Ile de France ewes.     

Claude Bourgelat

Abstract— A note on the life and work of Claude Bourgelat, 1712–1778. Bourgelat founded the first veterinary school in the world at Lyons, France in 1762. His difficulties at Lyons and later at Alfort, Paris, in 1766, where he established a second school are discussed.
Résumé— Un commentaire sur la vie et I'oeuvre de Claude Bourgelat, 1712–1778. Bourgelat fonda la première école vétérinaire au monde à Lyon en 1762. Les obstacles qu'il a rencontrés, d'abord à Lyon puis plus tard à Alfort près de Paris, où il établit une deuxième école, sont discutés.
Zusammenfassung— Eine Aufzeichnung über das Leben und Schaffen von Claude Bourgelat (1712–1778). Bourgelat gründete in Lyons, Frankreich, im Jahre 1762 die erste Veterinärschule. E werden die Schwierigkeiten beschrieben, denen er in Lyons und später, im Jahre 1766, in Alfort, Paris, wo er eine zweite Schule einrichtete, begegnete.     

Epidemiological surveillance of infectious diseases in France

Epidemiological surveillance, namely the continuous monitoring of diseases and health determinants in a population, has developed over the past fifteen years, in the sphere of human health as well as in animal health. All epidemiological surveillance networks include the following four stages: data collection, data transmission, data processing and dissemination of information. However, despite this basic similarity, the very many networks existing in France are extremely varied in nature. At the national level, the bodies involved in epidemiological surveillance for infectious animal diseases are the Direction générale de l'alimentation, the Agence fran?aise de sécurité sanitaire des aliments and, to a lesser degree, the Institut fran?ais de recherche pour l'exploitation de la mer. In the field, the networks rely on the Direction des services vétérinaires, veterinary practitioners, laboratories in each département, and livestock producers' groups (especially animal health protection groups). Some twenty French networks currently in operation are presented in this article according to a classification based on published criteria. In the case of human infectious diseases, epidemiological surveillance is carried out almost entirely by the Direction générale de la santé and the Directions départementales d'action sanitaire et sociale, the Institut de veille sanitaire and the various Centres nationaux de référence (CNRs). Most human infectious diseases are monitored by one or more of the following broad categories of networks: reporting of notifiable diseases, the CNRs, the network of sentinel doctors, the network of hospital laboratories and departments, and medical causes of death. An example where surveillance is covered by several networks is also presented, namely surveillance for salmonellosis and Salmonella. Lastly, methods for evaluating networks are discussed.     

Sebastian Fey, Zuben and Erlen (Thurgau), 1791-1825]

Sebastian Fey (1791-1825) was a young veterinarian of the Swiss canton of Thurgau (founded 1803). He had first made an apprenticeship as a country veterinarian, and his educational background was very modest. But his zealousness to come out of the darknesses of empirical veterinary medicine was very strong. With a cantonal scholarship, he managed to spend a year (1813/14) at the Vienna Veterinary School. He was one of the first members of the Swiss Veterinary Association founded 1813, and published a series of papers in the early volumes of its Schweizer Archiv für Tierheilkunde, on from 1816. He also had two monographs printed in Constance publishing houses. In the second of them, he confirmed and defended the statements of Skellett, a British pioneer of foetotomy in cattle.     

Energy requirements of Texel crossbred lambs

Two trials were conducted to determine the energy requirements of feedlot Texel crossbred lambs. In a comparative slaughter trial, thirty 11/16 Texel x 5/16 Ile de France crossbred noncastrated male lambs, weaned at 42 d of age (16.2 +/- 2.1 kg of shrunk BW; SBW), were used. Five lambs were randomly chosen and slaughtered after 10 d of experimental management and diet adaptation (baseline group). Fifteen lambs then were fed for ad libitum intake and slaughtered at 25, 30, or 35 kg of SBW. The remaining 10 lambs were randomly assigned to 2 levels of DMI, either 70 or 55% of the ad libitum intake, and were slaughtered concomitantly with lambs of the 35 kg of SBW group. Total body N, fat, and energy contents were determined. In a digestibility trial, 6 Texel x Ile de France crossbred lambs (30.4 +/- 2.6 kg of SBW) were housed in metabolic cages and used in a replicated 3 x 3 Latin square experiment to evaluate the energetic value of the diet at different feed intake levels. Net and ME requirements for maintenance were 58.6 and 91 kcal/kg(0.75) of SBW, respectively. Consequently, partial efficiency of energy use for maintenance was 0.64. Body fat content varied from 72.7 to 125.9 g/kg of empty BW, respectively, for 13.1 and 28.2 kg of empty BW. Net energy requirements for growth of lambs at 15 and 35 kg of SBW at an ADG of 250 g were 424 and 553 kcal/d, respectively. Partial efficiency of energy use for growth was 0.47. Texel x Ile de France crossbred growing lambs used in this study showed decreased nutritional requirements than those reported by most nutritional systems.     

Use of fluoxetine to treat stereotypical pacing behavior in a brown bear (Ursus arctos)

A 12-year-old, male, brown bear (Ursus arctos) named Abdi exhibited stereotypical pacing behavior. He was kept as a pet for 10 years by local villagers, then he was rescued and taken to the Karacabey Bear Sanctuary in July 2001. His physical condition was extremely poor. Because he had never lived with other bears, he was terrified and refused to integrate with them. After 6 months he was healthy physically but observations by the keepers indicated that he was pacing all day. He was treated with fluoxetine (0.62 mg/kg orally every 24 hours) for 6 months, and had been observed totally for 18 months. After stereotypy ceased completely, he was transferred to the large naturalistic enclosure and did not show any stereotypical behavior during the subsequent observation period (1 year). He was treated successfully using a combination of fluoxetine, the provisioning of extra space, and the addition of novel stimulation in a naturalistic enclosure. The space and stimulation could be sufficient to mimic the therapeutic effect of the pharmacological therapy in the long term.     

Breed differences in sheep with respect to the accumulation of copper in the liver

Male lambs of the pure breeds Texel, Flemish milk sheep, and Finnish landrace, and of the crossbrech Texel x Friesian milk sheep, Texel x Finnish landrace, Suffolk x Friesian milk sheep, and Finnish landrace x He de France were fed hay and concentrates, the latter differing only in the content of copper. At high (± 35 ppm) and at moderately low (± 10 ppm) copper levels in the concentrate, breed differences in the accumulation of copper in the liver were studied‐Hepatic Cu‐levels increased significantly in the case of the high Cu‐fed animals, but great differences in the metabolism of excessive amounts of dietary Cu exist between the particular breeds and crossbreds. The Texel breed was most susceptible to an excess of dietary Cu and the Finnish landrace was the least susceptible breed, while the Flemish milk sheep and the crossbreds were intermediate. In blood serum, the enzyme activities of sorbitol dehvdrogenase, lactate dehydroge‐nase, γ‐glutamyl transferase, and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase were increased to a greater or less extent in the high Cu‐fed animals, but the correlation with hepatic Cu‐content was poor. For the most susceptible breeds, even a level of 10 ppm Cu in a ration with nearly equal amounts of hay and concentrate is insufficiently low for the prevention of Cu‐accumulation in the liver.     

Vegetative endocarditis in a scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah).

Streptococcus uberis was cultured from vegetative endocarditis lesions in a scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah) from the Parc de la Haute Touche, France. This is the first reported single isolation of S. uberis from an oryx with vegetative endocarditis leading to fatal congestive heart failure.     

Targeted surveillance to assess the prevalence of BSE in high-risk populations in western France and the associated risk factors

A pilot study was set up for the first time in France in August 2000, to obtain more precise estimates on the BSE epidemic in France. Three categories of cattle at risk of BSE (found dead on-farm, euthanased and emergency slaughtered) were sampled exhaustively from August 7 to December 22, 2000, in the three regions assumed to be the most affected with BSE in France (Basse-Normandie, Bretagne and Pays de la Loire). The samples were checked by using Prionics tests, and positive samples were confirmed by Western blot or immunohistochemistry. The overall prevalence of positive cattle was 0.16 per cent. Multifactorial logistic regression showed that there was a significantly higher prevalence among cattle from the birth cohorts July 1993 to June 1994 and July 1994 to June 1995, than among those born before July 1993, and among the categories 'euthanased' and 'emergency slaughtered' than among the category 'dead on-farm, and a higher prevalence in the regions Pays de la Loire and Bretagne than in Basse-Normandie. No significant differences in the prevalence of BSE were observed between dairy, beef suckler and mixed herds.     

Food Allergy In Dogs And Cats. A Review and Report of 43 Cases

Abstract— The literature on food allergy in dogs and cats is reviewed and 33 cases in dogs and 10 cases in cats, seen in Aquitaine, France, are described. Clinical aspects, diagnosis and aetiology are emphasised and compared with published data.
Résumé— Cet article fait la synthèse des données bibliographiques concernant l'allergie alimentaire chez le chien et le chat. Puis les auteurs présentent 33 cas de la maladie chez le chien et 10 cas chez le chat, observés en Aquitaine (France). Les aspects cliniques, diagnostiques et étiologiques sont soulignés et comparés aux données de la littérature.
Zusammenfassung— In diesem Artikel wird ein Rückblick über die Futtermittel-allergie bie Hund und Katze in der Literatur gegeben. 33 Fälle dieser Erkrankung bei Hunden und 10 bei Katzen in Aquitanien, Frankreich, werden beschrieben. Klinische Aspekte, Diagnostik und Ätiologie werden herausgestellt und mit den Literaturangaben verglichen.
Resumen  Este artículo presenta una revisión bibliográfica de la alergia alimentaria en el perro y en el gato. A continuación se presentan los datos clinicos de 33 casos de alergia alimentaria en perros y de 10 casos de alergia alimentaria en gatos, diagnosticados en Aquitania, Francia. Se describen los signos clinicos, el diagnóstico y la etiologia y se comparan éstos con los descritos en la bibliografia.     

Performance and nematode infection of ewe lambs on intensive rotational grazing with two different cultivars of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panicum maximum</Emphasis>

The daily live weight gain (DLWG), faecal nematode egg counts (FEC), and packed cell volume (PCV) of Suffolk, Ile de France and Santa Inês ewe lambs were evaluated fortnightly for 56 days in the dry season (winter) and 64 days in the rainy season (summer) of 2001-2002. The animals were distributed in two similar groups, one located on Aruana and the other on Tanzania grass (Panicum maximum), in rotational grazing system at the Instituto de Zootecnia, in Nova Odessa city (SP), Brazil. In the dry season, 24 one-year-old ewe lambs were used, eight of each breed, and there was no difference (p > 0.05) between grasses for DLWG (100 g/day), although the Suffolk had higher values (p < 0.05) than the other breeds. In the rainy season, with 33 six-month-old ewe lambs, nine Suffolk, eight Ile de France and 16 Santa Inês, the DLWG was not affected by breed, but it was twice as great (71 g/day, p < 0.05) on Aruana as on Tanzania grass (30 g/day). The Santa Inês ewe lambs had the lowest FEC (p < 0.05) and the highest PCV (p < 0.05), confirming their higher resistance to Haemonchus contortus, the prevalent nematode in the rainy season. It was concluded that the best performance of ewe lambs on Aruana pastures in the rainy season is probably explained by their lower nematode infection owing to the better protein content of this grass (mean contents 11.2% crude protein in Aruana grass and 8.7% in Tanzania grass, p < 0.05) which may have improved the immunological system with the consequence that the highest PCV (p < 0.05) observed in those animals.     

Arnold Schell (1821-1900), departmental veterinarian and dozent of the Agricultural Academy in Bonn--contemporary historical profile of a personality]

In the early 19th century numerous scientific educational institutions in the field of agriculture came into existence. Motives were new knowledges in agriculture, science and economics. After a transient establishment of an agricultural institute at the University of Bonn (1819-1826) in 1847 an independent academy of agriculture, later a college resp. a faculty were founded in Poppelsdorf nr. Bonn. Instructions on veterinary science, which was regarded as an auxiliary subject included animal diseases and anatomy as well as physiology of domestic animals. These subjects were taught for 48 years by Prof. Arnold SCHELL, honorary lecturer (1850-1898), being simultaneously Departmentstierarzt in Cologne and Kreistierarzt (district veterinary officer) in Bonn. SCHELL published articles with variable topics. He took an active hand as member of the executive committee (from 1860) and as head of the local section Bonn in the Landwirtschaftliche Verein für Rheinpreussen. He organized the Verein Rheinpreussischer Tier?rzte, and he was for many years its president. As delegate of this association he advocated the corporate concerns in the Deutsche Veterin?rrat and in the Centralvertretung der tier?rztlichen Vereine Preussens. SCHELL was a distinguished teacher and conveyor between veterinary science and agriculture, he was engaged in problems of animals husbandry and epidemic law, he contributed essentially to the development of the veterinary corporation. He was decorated with top honors as Kronenorden III. class and Roter Adlerorden IV. and III. class.