Page 5 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

ONDERSTEPOORT 100
in domestic animals, but also indirectly in humans through the known relationship between the occurrence of anthrax in animals and humans. So effective was prophylactic control, utilizing the Sterne spore vaccine, that near-eradication of anthrax has been achieved in a number of countries.
A further highlight at the end of this period was the identification by K.C.A. Schultz and C.
McIntyre in 1948 of Clostridium welchii
(now perfringens) type D in South Africa.
and elimination of reactors. It proved too costly to be adopted by most farmers, however. Vaccination with the ‘strain 19’, which was developed in the USA and imported in 1934, was also used on a very limited scale. When G.C. (Govert) van Drimmelen joined the staff of Onderstepoort in 1946 he was given the task by Robinson to investigate and improve
G.C. van Drimmelen, head of the bacteriology section from 1956
It had been known in other countries as the cause of enterotoxaemia in sheep and in hindsight it must have been present in this country for many years. However, the disease known by farmers as ‘kidney disease’, ‘pulpy kidney’ or ‘bloednier’ had been confused locally with ‘geilsiekte’ or prussic acid poisoning, which occurs under similar conditions i.e. lush pastures. A vaccine was first imported, then improved and produced locally. It soon became a best-seller among Onderstepoort’s vaccines.
“A further highlight at the end of this period was the identification by K.C.A. Schultz and C. McIntyre in 1948 of Clostridium welchii (now perfringens) type D, the cause of enterotoxaemia, in South Africa.”
The post-war boom period (1949-1980)
Brucellosis or contagious abortion in cattle, caused by Brucella abortus, had been recognized clinically at a very early stage in South Africa and had been diagnosed serologically in 1913. Robinson carried out fundamental research on the nature of the infection at Onderstepoort and was successful in elimi- nating the disease from government-owned herds by testing
1956 he was succeeded by van Drimmelen as head of the Bacteriology Section and in 1958 as Associate Professor in Bacteriology at the Faculty. With the reorganization of the Faculty in 1958, and the need to reduce the number of departments, a single Department of Infectious Diseases was formed with divisions of bacteriology, virology, protozoology and state-veterinary medicine. The head of the new depart- ment was R.A. Alexander, Professor in Virology. B.C. (Ben)
the production of the vaccine for which the demand greatly increased in the post- war boom. His solution of the problem was the development of an aerated liquid culture method which greatly increased the capacity to produce sufficient vaccine to meet the needs created by campaigns launched by Veterinary Services to eliminate the disease.
Freeze-drying the vaccine solved the problem of its instability. Van Drimmelen was also responsible for the identification of Brucella ovis as the cause of infertility in rams and the development of an effective vaccine using the Brucella melitensis strain Rev 1 in 1964. When Robinson retired in
95
Bacteriology
1908-2008
Years