The Entangled History of Sadoka (Rinderpest) and Veterinary Science in Tanzania and the Wider World, 1891-1901.

Scholarship on the Tanzanian Rinderpest epizootic of the 1890s has assumed that German colonizers understood from the start that they were confronting the same disease that had afflicted Eurasia for centuries. Outward indicators of the epizootic, known locally as sadoka, especially wildlife destruction, were unknown in Europe, leading German veterinarians to doubt that the African disease was Rinderpest. Financial constraints and conflicting development agendas, especially tension between ranching and pastoralism, deterred early colonial applications of veterinary science that might have led to an early diagnosis. European veterinarians, guarding their authority against medical researchers, opposed inoculation therapies in the case of Rinderpest in favor of veterinary policing despite recent breakthroughs in vaccine research. The virus was not identified before reaching South Africa in 1896, but this breakthrough had little influence on policy in East Africa. Yet emergent international disease conventions directed at bubonic plague entangled with veterinary policy in East Africa.

Induction of apoptotic cellular death in lymphatic tissues of cattle experimentally infected with different strains of rinderpest virus.

The presence, type, and extent of cellular death in lymphatic tissues of cattle experimentally infected with rinderpest virus strains of different virulence was investigated morphologically. Cells with DNA strand breaks were identified in histological sections of palatine tonsil, spleen, and mesenteric and mandibular lymph nodes by the TUNEL (terminal desoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling) assay. In addition, representative samples of lymphatic tissues were examined by transmission electron microscopy. The results indicated that cellular disassembly in lymphatic tissues was caused by both apoptosis and oncosis. Cells with DNA strand breaks were observed in follicular and parafollicular areas of lymphatic tissues and their numbers were determined. A significant correlation was found between the number of TUNEL-positive cells and viral virulence. These results suggest that, in addition to oncosis, apoptotic cellular death in lymphatic tissues contributes substantially to the pathogenesis of rinderpest.

Microbiological research at the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM).

The nature of the research carried out by the staff of the Microbiology Section of the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) at home and abroad is illustrated by precis of projects on rinderpest, orf in goats and sheep, bovine dermatophilosis, contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, tick-borne fever in goats and sheep, bovine petechial fever, and caprine cowdriosis.

Correlation of humoral immune response with clinical presentation, pulmonary lesions and mortality patterns of goats experimentally infected with peste des petits ruminants virus.

The patterns of humoral immune response, measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and the development of clinical signs, pulmonary lesions and mortality patterns were studied in goats experimentally infected with peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) or Kata virus. It was possible to classify the animals into high and low responders according to the pattern of humoral immune response. The high responders had a prolonged, chronic infection characterized by a giant cell pneumonia which was sometimes complicated by bronchopneumonia. Such animals survived beyond 1 month. The low immune responders had a subacute or acute clinical presentation. In the former case, the animals developed an uncomplicated giant cell pneumonia and died within 1 month of infection. Those with the acute symptoms developed pulmonary congestion and oedema and succumbed to the infection in 1 week. The clinical and pathological response of goats to PPRV infection, and ultimately the outcome of the infection correlated well with the ability of the goats to mount specific antibodies to PPRV.

Experimental infection of white-tailed deer with rinderpest virus.

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) succumbed to experimental infection with virulent rinderpest (RP) virus that was also lethal to cattle and goats. The deer developed clinical signs typical of RP and died 5 and 6 days post-inoculation. Infection was confirmed by recovery of virus from blood before death, from lymph node tissue after necropsy, and demonstration of specific complement fixing antigen in those tissues. Electron micrographs of infected Vero cell cultures revealed extracellular virions and intracytoplasmic and intranuclear inclusions made of randomly distributed fibrillar strands.