Page 70 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

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1954, that it was caused by the bont-legged tick, Hyalomma truncatum. Only female ticks caused disease and Neitz found that it was possible to grade the severity of the disease by progressive removal of the ticks during the ‘incubation period’. From this he deduced that the ticks produced a toxin that was responsible for the disease.
Although what is now regarded as the classical form of East Coast fever – a cattle-adapted variant of T. parva – had been eradicated from South Africa by 1955, a considerably different form of this highly fatal disease was diagnosed by Neitz in 1953. He named it Corridor disease because the first recognised outbreak occurred in the then existing so-called corridor of land between the Hluhluwe and Umfolozi game reserves in Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal). On investigating the local epidemiology he came to the conclusion that African
buffaloes, which roamed in and out of this corridor at will, were probably the source of infection for the Rhipicephalus appendiculatus ticks, which he subsequently incriminated as the vectors at the laboratory. Neitz recalled that D.A. Lawrence had first recognised a similar, fatal, buffalo-associated theile- rial infection in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1934. He therefore named the parasite Theileria lawrencei.
At a later stage it was regarded as a subspecies and re- named Theileria parva lawrencei, and today is referred to as ‘buffalo-derived T. parva, based on molecular studies. Young buffaloes were brought to Onderstepoort and proven by xeno-diagnosis to be asymptomatic carriers of the responsible theilerial organism. Corridor disease, also known as buffalo disease, is now regarded as an ancestral form of East Coast fever.
Neitz achieved international fame by his research in
protozoology, tick-borne diseases and virology. He
consequently served on several international scientific
bodies such as the Expert Panel of the FAO/OIE
(Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations/Office
International des Epizooties) on Tick-borne Diseases of Livestock
from its inception in 1956, and as a consultant to the FAO. His fame
resulted in attracting several young veterinary scientists to spend their
‘sabbaticals’ at Onderstepoort. One of them, in 1960, was P.H. Bool
who later became the General Director of the Central Veterinary Institute at
Lelystad in The Netherlands; another was R.S. Schindler of the ‘Institut für Schiffs- und Tropenkrankheiten’ in Hamburg, who visited Onderstepoort in the late 1960s. H. Dennig, who was later attached to the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Munich in Germany, also visited the Institute in the 1960s.
Apart from his proficiency in German, Neitz could also speak several Sotho languages fluently. This proved very useful during his stable rounds, which he conducted every day of the week, including Saturdays and Sundays, because his communication skill provided him with a quick overview of
the health status of the animals. These rounds usually occupied at least an hour, ending up in the East Coast fever isolation stable. Being exposed to these rounds, when he joined the Protozoology Section in 1956, is one of Bigalke’s lasting memories. Neitz was a fountain of knowledge and when he was in the mood he used to hold forth on every possible relevant topic, but particularly on his research experiences.
Neitz was meticulous in everything that he did, from the management of his experimental animals – including their stabling – to the keeping of records of every manipulation that was carried
out in his research projects in record books that were reserved specifically for the Protozoology Section. It also included the staining and microscopic examination of blood and other smears, to personally performing a necropsy on every animal that died. He had a large number of registered research projects running concurrently, virtually all of them involving large domesticated animals such as cattle and sheep. Horses, pigs, goats and dogs also featured in his experiments from time to time. Occasionally there were wild animals such as the young buffaloes, mentioned above, black wildebeest and blesbok.
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PART 3
History of Individual Disciplines
1908-2008
Years