Page 41 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

ONDERSTEPOORT 100
Zoology laboratory in 1908, where the first helminthological research was conducted at Onderstepoort
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in South Africa, whereas the true H. leachi, which occurs in Egypt and north-east Africa, does not transmit this organism.
Helminths
Sir Arnold recruited several specialists from abroad to assist with research in various fields of veterinary importance including Parasitology. One of the most prominent of these was F. (Frank) Veglia, an Italian graduate who did pioneering work on the descriptions of the nematodes, Haemonchus contortus and Oesophagostomum columbianum, at that time probably responsible for most of the small stock losses due to worm infection in South Africa. Prior to the First World War ostrich farming was a major South African export industry. The birds were, however, affected by a condition colloquially known as ‘vrotmaag’, a diphtheritic proventricu- litis caused by the nematode, Libyostrongylus douglassi, which caused considerable losses particularly in young birds. A. Theiler and W. Robertson published a definitive study on this helminth. Like its ostrich hosts, the free-living immature stages of this worm can survive arid and other adverse climatic conditions for considerable periods of time. The effective control of this parasite only became possible with the ad-
vent of modern anthelmintics during the 1960s. Theiler also described a new nematode in domestic fowls, which used termites as its intermediate host.
The fact that H.O. Mönnig was a student at the Faculty of Veterinary Science during his early years at the Institute did not put a brake on his research and he continued publishing on parasites. During his student days he described Trichostrongylus rugatus (a bankrupt worm) from sheep, and in his final year he published an account of the life histories of two Trichostrongylus species, together with illustrations and descriptions of their free-living larval stages and their adults. He had a particular interest in the helminths of wild- life of which he described several species, and attempted, with some successes, to transmit these parasites to domestic stock. He was interested in the control of worms and published widely on this subject, and was responsible for the lectures in Helminthology presented to the students at the veterinary faculty. His book Veterinary Parasitology, illu- strated with his own meticulous illustrations, covered the fields of Helminthology and Entomology and remained the textbook of choice for South African Veterinary students until the early 1980s.
Parasitology
1908-2008
Years