Page 66 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

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ERSTEPOORT 100
Mobile laboratory for field work in ca 1914
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for the production of vaccines against the virus diseases blue- tongue, rabies and African horsesickness. Vaccine against smallpox in humans was produced in one of the small ancillary buildings. The research on protozoal diseases was probably conducted in the bacteriology laboratory. Theiler performed his revolutionary research on anaplasmosis (for many decades thought to be caused by a protozoan parasite) of cattle in 1908 and the following few years.
By 1913 the Onderstepoort staff boasted the presence of
a parasitologist (read: helminthologist) and an entomologist, and when the Faculty was launched in 1920 also a biochemist, an anatomist and a physiologist. Although the subject is not identified as such, it can be assumed that Theiler (Dean) and P.J. du Toit (Acting Dean) lectured on protozoan diseases as part of the course in Tropical Medicine to the first veterinary students.
After the tremendous impetus provided by Theiler to re- search on protozoology in the last decade of the 19th and first of the 20th century, investiga- tions in this discipline waned until the dedicated, enthusiastic, recently- qualified W.O. Neitz appeared on the scene in 1930. Although Neitz qualified at the Onderstepoort Faculty in 1929, his first publication – as co-author with H.H. Curson on an anatomical subject – appeared in 1927 when Neitz was in the 3rd year of the veterinary course. His third publication, in 1930 as senior author, is on spirochaetes in the wounds of pigs and in the following year he published on blood parasites of game in Zululand. In 1932, as vete- rinary research officer, his tasks are listed as rabies investigations (probab-
W.O. Neitz (centre), world famous researcher on protozoan and viral diseases
PART 3
History of Individual Disciplines
1908-2008
Years