The Veterinary Immunological Toolbox: Past, Present, and Future.

It is well-recognized that research capability in veterinary species is restricted by a lack of immunological reagents relative to the extensive toolboxes for small rodent biomedical model species and humans. This creates a barrier to the strategic development of disease control solutions for livestock, companion animals and wildlife that not only affects animal health but can affect human health by increasing the risk of transmission of zoonotic pathogens. There have been a number of projects aimed at reducing the capability gaps in the veterinary immunological toolbox, the majority of these focusing on livestock species. Various approaches have been taken to veterinary immunological reagent development across the globe and technological advances in molecular biology and protein biochemistry have accelerated toolbox development. While short-term funding initiatives can address specific gaps in capability, they do not account for long-term sustainability of reagents and databases that requires a different funding model. We review the past, present and future of the veterinary immunological toolbox with specific reference to recent developments discussed at the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) Veterinary Immunology Committee (VIC) Immune Toolkit Workshop at the 12th International Veterinary Immunology Symposium (IVIS) in Seattle, USA, 16-19 August 2019. The future availability of these reagents is critical to research for improving animal health, responses to infectious pathogens and vaccine design as well as for important analyses of zoonotic pathogens and the animal /human interface for One Health initiatives.

Ethnoveterinary botanical medicine in South Africa: A review of research from the last decade (2009 to 2019).

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) practices remain a common feature of South African animal husbandry, particularly in rural livestock healthcare. This review provides an update of research undertaken on South African EVM from 2009 until 2019. AIM OF THE STUDY: This review collates information and investigates trends in the increasing field of EVM research in South Africa over the last decade. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search was conducted using available databases including ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. Dissertations, theses, books and technical reports were also searched. RESULTS: In the past decade, ethnoveterinary surveys conducted in South Africa report the use of 139 plants from 50 families used against 21 animal diseases and conditions. Leaves, roots and bark have remained popular plant parts used for EVM. In terms of livestock species reported, the major focus was on cattle, goats and poultry. Only four of the nine provinces in the country have been surveyed. CONCLUSIONS: Relatively few publications reporting on ethnoveterinary surveys have originated from South Africa. These papers refer to many plants used for a variety of commonly encountered animal diseases and afflictions. With reference to recently published guidelines on conducting ethnobotanical surveys, several recommendations can be made to improve the robustness of surveys documenting the use of plants for EVM in South Africa.

Healing Animals in an Antibiotic Age: Veterinary Drugs and the Professionalism Crisis, 1945-1970.

Between 1945 and 1970, the introduction of antibiotics in agriculture forced veterinarians to articulate the boundaries of their professional identity. While veterinarians welcomed the new aid to arrest infectious diseases of livestock, they worried as farmers took animal healing into their own hands without veterinary supervision, and resented the competition from retail outlets that sold the drugs. Veterinary antibiotics also set off heated debates within the field about whether the profession should position itself as preventers or healers of disease, debates that were akin to the kinds of professional discourses among physicians and pharmacists in the same period. By calling attention to the social context that helped facilitate an increasing reliance on the veterinary antibiotics, this article helps explain the sources of present-day overuse of such antibiotics in American agriculture.

Comparison of veterinary drugs and veterinary homeopathy: part 1.

For many years after its invention around 1796, homeopathy was widely used in people and later in animals. Over the intervening period (1796-2016) pharmacology emerged as a science from Materia Medica (medicinal materials) to become the mainstay of veterinary therapeutics. There remains today a much smaller, but significant, use of homeopathy by veterinary surgeons. Homeopathic products are sometimes administered when conventional drug therapies have not succeeded, but are also used as alternatives to scientifically based therapies and licensed products. The principles underlying the veterinary use of drug-based and homeopathic products are polar opposites; this provides the basis for comparison between them. This two-part review compares and contrasts the two treatment forms in respect of history, constituents, methods of preparation, known or postulated mechanisms underlying responses, the legal basis for use and scientific credibility in the 21st century. Part 1 begins with a consideration of why therapeutic products actually work or appear to do so.

Food and Drug Administration Drug Approval Process: A History and Overview.

In this article, the processing of investigational and new drug applications is described and the standard and expedited review processes are examined. The efforts of the US Food and Drug Administration to ensure greater agency transparency and fiscal responsibility and intensify oversight during the drug development and approval process are reviewed. Often attributed to a decrease in the number of uninsured adults, both the increase in prescription drug sales and the high costs associated with bringing a new drug to market highlight the necessity for a streamlined and cost-effective process to deliver these drugs safely and effectively.

The veterinary medicine industry in Britain in the twentieth century.

Economic historians have focused research effort on accounting for the growth and significance of Britain's pharmaceutical industry, but little effort has so far been directed at the veterinary medicine industry, which formed an important part of the wider sector. This article addresses that gap. Factors responsible for that sector's relative insignificance until the 1950s included a general tendency to slaughter rather than to treat sick animals, the absence of advanced medicines until the innovation of sulpha drugs and antibiotics, and difficult relations with the wider pharmaceutical industry. Thereafter output of veterinary medicines increased dramatically, arising from an exponential growth in the demand for intensively farmed poultry meat. Since the 1980s a decline in the use of drugs in agriculture has caused the industry to concentrate on the health needs of domestic animals rather than those of livestock.

Residue analysis: Future trends from a historical perspective.

A residue is a trace (microg kg(-1), ng kg(-1)) of a substance, present in a matrix. Residue analysis is a relatively young discipline and a very broad area, including banned (A) substances as well as registered veterinary medicinal products (B substances). The objective of this manuscript is to review future trends in the analysis of residues of veterinary drugs in meat producing animals out of historical perspectives. The analysis of residues in meat producing animals has known a tremendous evolution during the past 35-40 years. In the future, it can be foreseen that this evolution will proceed in the direction of the use of more and more sophisticated and expensive machines. These apparatus, and the necessary human resources for their use, will only be affordable for laboratories with sufficient financial resources and having guarantee for a sufficient throughput of samples.

Hernquist's Animal Pharmacy--can any of the drugs sold there in the eighteenth century be of use to day?

Carl von Linné's 300th birthday is celebrated this year (2007) in Sweden. One of his pupils, Peter Hernquist, has also been acknowledged and an exhibition on his Veterinary Pharmacy has been presented in Skara, Sweden. Some of the drugs sold in this pharmacy are discussed. Thus chamomile prescribed by Hernquist for external use for wounds and light inflammatory processes in the skin could most likely have been effective as it is considered to be to day. Also for indigestion and flatulence Hernquist might have had therapeutic success using chamomile teas. Willow bark, which Hernquist recommended for "fevers" most likely could have been effective for mild fevers due to its contents of salicin, which is transformed to salicylic acid. Although many drugs were ineffective Hernquist was known as a successful veterinary surgeon. Placebo effects and natural healing could be part of his success.

[The veterinary pharmacopoeia of Peter Bodmer, blacksmith and cattle doctor in Därligen 1836]. / Das Arzneibuch des Peter Bodmer, Schmied und Vieharzt in Därligen 1836.

The manuscript entitled "My pharmacopoeia Peter Bodmer in Därligen--1836" [Arzeneybuch mein Peter Bodmer in Därligen pro. 1836] contains a collection of a total of 227 remedies for the treatment of cattle, horses, pigs and human beings. The author Peter Bodmer was born on 15 November 1811 in Därligen on the shores of Lake Thun and worked as a smith and a cattle doctor. The manuscript cannot offer a full overview of the therapeutic possibilities in veterinary medicine at that time. The remedies mainly describe the peroral dispensing of herbal preparations. The use of medicinal plants, however, would only partially measure up to modern phytotherapy. Bodmer's manuscript provides a certain insight into the traditional herbal folk remedies used on animals and humans in the rural Bernese Oberland at that time.

[How, why, when and for how long time did the Danish veterinarians have the right to dispense drugs?]. / Hvordan, hvorfor, hvornår og hvor loenge havde danske dyrloeger ret til at dispensere loegemidler?

Danish veterinarians are still allowed to prescribe and distribute drugs sold by Danish pharmacies to be used for treatment of animals under their care in agreement with the Danish rules and EU directives (4). Since the first student graduated from Danish Veterinary School in 1775, Danish veterinarians have also, in agreement with their education, had the right to dispense drugs produced in their own dispensary. However, due to the development of the methods for drug production, the introduction of registered products from medical companies, and the justified demands for documentation of drug efficacy and safety was abolished in 1988, and no exemptions were granted after January 1st 1990 (1). The controlled use of drugs with documented efficacy and safety has improved the clinical effect of animal treatment, minimized side effects in treated animals and unwanted effects on the environment and the consumers of animal products (22).

Antibiotic use in food animals: controlling the human health impact.

Resistance to antimicrobial drugs has compromised control of many bacterial pathogens. For foodborne pathogens, the most likely source of resistance is use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals. To control the human health impact from use of antimicrobials in animals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced plans to assess the microbial safety of all antimicrobials intended for use in food-producing animals. This paper describes the history of antimicrobial use and regulation in animals, the public health concern, the current animal drug approval process in the United States, the international perspective, and FDA's proposed procedures to evaluate the human health impact of the antimicrobial effects associated with animal drugs intended for use in food-producing animals. The primary public health goal of the improved regulatory paradigm is to ensure that significant human antimicrobial therapies are not lost due to use of antimicrobials in food animals.