Page 38 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

OND
ERSTEPOORT 100
C.J. (Charlie) Howell qualified as a veterinarian in 1954 and after a spell in private practice joined the section of Entomology in 1963 and later took over the student lectures in Entomology from R.M. du Toit. With
Walker and Nevill he produced an illustra-
ted science bulletin on the ectoparasites of
domestic animals in South Africa. In it all
the major ectoparasites that infest domestic
animals in South Africa are illustrated and
described, their life cycles explained and
the geographic distributions of some of
them mapped. The conditions they cause
and the diseases they transmit are also
supplied. Although this bulletin was written
for farmers and laypersons it also served
as an important textbook for veterinary
students. Howell, who had a great love
for vintage cars and their restoration, was
mechanically minded and developed an
automated device to harvest the saliva of
ticks in an attempt to have this analysed for
the toxins that it might contain.
Howell had nick-names for many of
his fellow researchers, Errol Nevill was known as ‘Koos’, Ivan Horak as ‘Pedagoog’, Richard Reinecke as ‘Chabertia’, Arthur Spickett as ‘Spockett’, and Ben Sutherland, a large man, as ‘Twiggy’. He did not join the staff of the Veterinary Faculty when it became autonomous in 1973, but nevertheless con- tinued to lecture till the end of that year when Horak joined the Department of Parasitology at the Faculty in 1974 and took over the student lectures in Entomology.
P.A. (Piet) Basson qualified as a veterinarian in 1954 and 128 thereafter was appointed as a state veterinarian in Namibia where, besides his state veterinary duties, he identified the cause of specific oculovascular myiasis, colloquially known as ‘uitpeuloog’ in sheep and other animals. He illustrated and described the larvae of the Gedoelstia species flies responsible for this condition and also detailed their life cycles in their natural hosts blue wildebeest and other head-nodding
antelope species.
After joining the Department of Pathology at the Institute in 1963 he produced a series of papers on this work (see also Part 3: Pathology). It was suggested to Basson that he
use this work for a thesis but he refused – thus he never received a DVSc (or any other postgraduate degree). Basson was an exceptional artist and produced a number of oil-paintings depicting scenes in his beloved Namibia, to which he returned after leaving the Institute.
A.M. (Arthur) Spickett joined the Sec- tion of Entomology at the Institute in 1973. One of his most noteworthy early discoveries was that cross-mating between the indigenous blue tick B. decoloratus and the introduced Asiatic blue tick B. microplus produced sterile offspring. This finding has led to many theories as to why the exotic B. microplus is displacing the indigenous B. decoloratus in many regions of South Africa and Africa.
Spickett’s research encompassed the taxonomy of ticks, the biology of free-living B. decoloratus, and the effect of fire on free-living ticks. He and his co-workers demonstrated that unless tick-infested animals are kept off newly burned veld, the efficacy of fire as a means of controlling ticks is of very short duration. In some cases the numbers of free-living ticks collected from veld that had just been burnt exceeded those collected from the same veld just prior to the burn. He also demonstrated that indigenous Nguni cattle are able to develop resistance to a wide spectrum of tick species, compared to Bonsmara and particularly Hereford
cattle in which this capability is less evident.
Heloise Heyne started at the Institute in 1972, where she
has been involved in the rearing and identification of ticks. Her particular speciality is the identity of the soft ticks or tampans, for which she is perceived as the South African expert. She has also worked in a collaborative role with several of the tick researchers at the Institute, and is the Curator of the Gertrud Theiler Tick Museum at the Institute.
PART 3
History of Individual Disciplines
1908-2008
Years