Page 7 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

institute status in 1976 with Kleeberg as first Director. He held this position until his retirement in 1989. The unit attracted several foreign workers, inter alia Dr E.H. Runyon from the USA who was famous for his classification of atypical mycobacteria. A major contribution by the group was their demonstration that atypical mycobacteria are respon- sible for 95% of tuberculoid lesions in
pigs, that they are common in nature and that those infecting humans, pigs and cattle are almost identical. In 1976 H.F.K.A. (Hildegard) Huchzermeyer became the next dedicated head of the TB laboratory. She was responsible for the standardization of bovine tuberculin and for the diagnosis of mycobacterial infections, including M. paratuberculosis, for the following 20 years, with the able technical assistance of B. Erasmus, O.L. Brett, G. Schiele, H.Harris, M. Hanisch and S. Waterson.
Significant advances were made during
this period in improving the different clos-
tridial vaccines. In 1950 Sterne and L.M.
Wentzel introduced a new method of culti-
vating the anaerobic C. botulinum orga-
nisms in an invaginated semi-permeable
cellophane sausage casing suspended in
the growth medium. It resulted in a much
higher concentration of the bacterial toxin accumulating in the casing and thus in increased yield at a lower cost. During the 1950s Jansen introduced several improvements in the production of the vaccines against lamb dysentery (bloed- pens) and pulpy kidney (bloednier).
He also studied the various toxins produced by the mem- bers of this group and developed methods for their quantita- tive determination. This contributed significantly to quality assurance in vaccine production as well as in improving diag- nostic techniques. In 1961, when Alexander retired, Jansen became the seventh Director of the Institute.
The diagnosis of anaerobic infections and research on anaerobic bacteria had become the responsibility of F.S. (Faffa) Malan during 1969 and when he left C.M.E. (Cheryl) McCrindle carried on during the first half of the 1970s. She had a special interest in the pathogenic role of Clostridium novyi in blackquarter-like lesions of cattle, because at the time only C. chauvoei was considered to be significant. McCrindle went on to lecture in bacterial diseases at the Faculty when the Institute and Faculty were separated, together with B.J. (Barend) Venter. J.V. (Jan) Basch continued with anaerobic work for a year, but soon went to private practice in Johannesburg. He was succeeded by M.W. (Mike) Odendaal who concentrated on the role of Clostridium perfringes type A in haemorrhagic enteritis of ruminants. Odendaal later returned to Onderstepoort to head a team tasked with improving vaccines. M.J. (Meintjies) de Bruyn took over the responsibility for anaerobic diagnostics as well as working on improvements to existing vaccines, and
ONDERSTEPOORT 100
S.J. (Sharon) de Wet took on this role in the late 1980s before she emigrated to Australia about 10 years later.
When van Drimmelen accepted the position of agricultural attache in the USA in 1966, Worthington was transferred to the brucellosis group where he stayed until 1973 when he moved to the Faculty on a full-time basis. Other workers
during the early 1960s included Stan van Blerk (mycoplasmas), Hendrik Botes (salmonellas and enterobacteria), Ken Malkin (Campylobacter) and C.M. (Colin) Cameron on general bacteriology with the emphasis on immunity in colibacillosis, salmonellosis, brucellosis and pasteurellosis. Cameron also studied Corynebacterium pyogenes and C. ovis, and was involved in the development of an Erysipelothrix vaccine. He took over the responsibility as head of Bacteriology in 1968. W.P.J. Fuls was Cameron’s right hand man for many years until his death in 1981.
Colibacillosis or white scours and allied diseases caused by Escherichia coli pre- sented researchers with a different problem compared to diseases such as anthrax. Anthrax is caused by a single bacterial serotype, whereas E. coli strains are nume- rous, and only a small proportion of them
cause disease. As only certain serotypes were found to be associated with disease, serotyping isolates was a useful first
step. Producing the typing antisera was a major undertaking,
as there were more than 270 typing sera to be produced and
tested. This task was initiated by Cameron and Fuls during
the late 1960s and completed by Marijke Henton. Once the 97 sera were available, all E. coli strains that were isolated from diagnostic material were typed, whether they were thought
to be associated with disease or were only incidental isolates. The first multivalent E. coli vaccine produced by Onderstepoort contained 15 serotypes known to be associated with disease in cattle and sheep in other countries, but once a solid database of South African serotypes had been built up, the cattle vaccine was changed to contain only five strains. An E. coli vaccine for pigs was added in 1972, containing the six most
Skin test for tuberculosis in a bovine
Bacteriology
1908-2008
Years