Page 94 - VHSA - Onderstepoort 100 Years - Part 3

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ERSTEPOORT 100
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(Valie) van Rooyen, who eventually had the rank of Special Grade Veterinary Technician, served as the first manager of the factory from 1968 until he retired in 1973 when he was replaced by Mr F.J. (Floors) Visser (in an acting capacity). Weiss introduced internationally acceptable standards for the quality of all the vaccines produced by the Onderstepoort vaccine factory.
All bacterial and viral vaccines were produced, bottled and lyophilized – if applicable – in the new facility. This also applied to heartwater vaccine, which
now consisted of frozen blood. However,
babesiosis and anaplasmosis vaccines were
still being produced by the research section
concerned and then transported in bulk to
the factory where bottling was carried out.
The financing of the vaccine produc- tion needs some elucidation. It occurred in typical government service fashion, i.e. the research section concerned, or from 1968 also the Vaccine Factory, budgeted for the funds required which was annually allocated – after having been cut back in
the customary way – by the parent body, the Department of Agriculture. The income derived from the sale of vaccines – usually sold at virtually cost price or even less because cross- subsidization was commonly practised – went to the State coffers, i.e. the Treasury. This, in many ways unsatisfactory, system continued until 1981.
Because vaccines had initially been produced by the research sections themselves, as already described, it had be- come customary to divert substantial amounts of the funds
budgeted for capital expenditure in the vaccine factory to finance the acquisition of equipment for the research sections. The argument used to justify this practice was that the Institute’s workshop could manufacture the equipment required for vaccine production at a fraction of the cost of purchasing mainly imported modern equipment. This may have been a logical approach in years gone by, but modern standards for vaccine production had become so high and the equipment required so sophisticated that manufacture
Aerial view of the new building (foreground) housing the administration of the Institute and Vaccine Factory in 1968
“The income derived from the sale of vaccines – usually sold at virtually cost price or even less because cross-subsidization was commonly practised – went to the State coffers, i.e. the Treasury.”
PART 3
History of Individual Disciplines
1908-2008
Years