Page 119 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

ONDERSTEPOORT 100
laboratory, A. (Attilio) Pini, supported by the Director of the OVI at that time, R.D. Bigalke.
Initially the laboratory was the res- ponsibility of the Department of Agriculture (and remained so even after the OVI joined the Agricultural Research Council [ARC] in 1992), for strategic reasons. Nevertheless, in 1995 the laboratory was also trans- ferred to the ARC as a separate Institute (Onderstepoort Institute for Exotic Diseases) with G.R. (Gavin) Thomson as Director. Since 1984, therefore, South Africa has had a facility adequate to produce vaccine specifically for the SAT serotypes prevalent in southern Africa (the original plant was designed to deliver 3 million monovalent doses a year) as well as being well-equipped for diagnostic and research activities.
In the intervening 24 years the laboratory (headed since 1999 by W. (Wilna) Vosloo [née Bosch]) has established a sound international reputation in the FMD field for its diagnostic and research work. Some of the achievements have been:
• A leading role in understanding the maintenance and transmission of SAT- type viruses by African wildlife, buffalo in particular; to a large extent this was enabled by long-standing collaboration with R. (Roy) Bengis and his colleagues at the State Vet Office at Skukuza. Major contributors to this work were Thomson, Vosloo and A. (Armanda) Bastos.
• Major contributions to understanding the phylogeny and molecular epide- miology of SAT-type viruses in sub- Saharan Africa (Vosloo, Bastos, R. (Rahana) Dwarka and several post- graduate students from Africa).
• Being the first to prepare infectious clones of SAT type virus to improve FMD vaccines by design (H.G. van Rensburg, F.F. Maree).
• Recognition as an OIE Reference Laboratory and FAO Collaborating Centre.
• Winning the NSTF Science, Engineering and Technology award for a corporate organization that has excelled during the previous ten years in 2002.
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Aerial view of the foot and mouth disease (FMD) high security complex
Virology
1908-2008
Years