Top Veterinary Stories for 2011

Dr. Donald F. Smith, Cornell University
Posted December 29, 2011

World Veterinary Year (Vet 2011) - The world's first veterinary school was established in Lyon, France 250 years ago (1761) by French veterinarian Claude Bourgelat. It was commissioned by King Louis XV to promote the prevention of cattle disease, notable Rinderpest (cattle plague). A second school was started by Bourgelat three years later in the Paris suburb of Alfort. Veterinary colleges soon emerged in London and Scotland. The 150th anniversary of veterinary medicine in the United States will be celebrated in 2013.

Animals in Movies - Two  movies gave us much to consider regarding the use and abuse of animals in war and peace. Sara Gruen's novel-turned-movie, "Water for Elephants" provided a glimpse of  circus life during the Great Depression; and the release of  Steven Spielberg's "War Horse" on Christmas Day portrayed the enormity of loss of equine life during wartime. Though segments of these movies needlessly strain the limits of credulity, the central themes provide compelling stories of the need for animal welfare and proper veterinary care.

Supporting Pets after the Great Japanese Earthquake - Disaster preparedness and response for animals came to prominence after Hurricane Katrina. However, the magnitude of animal devastation resulting from the March earthquake and tsunami of Northeastern Japan far eclipsed anything we had seen here in America. Dr. Asako Shimamura took leave from her regular job and worked as an individual volunteer in some of the hardest hit areas. Coordinating efforts with local veterinarians, she collected and distributed medical supplies and food in the heart of the disaster area, and reunited animals with their human families. Because of the loss of communication, the most severly affected areas were often those not identified by the Tokyo headquarters. By mid May, Dr. Shimamura had made over 200 different trips into the disaster area within the Miyagi Prefecture. Her bravery, commitment, compassion and perseverance against incredible natural and human challenges is one of the great veterinary stories of the year.

Veterinarian Awarded National Medal of Science - Ralph Brinster, a veterinary professor at the University of Pennsylvania received the National Medal of Science "for fundamental contributions to the development and use of transgenic mice". This award is the highest honor bestowed by the United States' government on scientists and engineers. Dr. Brinster is the first veterinarian in the country to receive the award since it was established 50 years ago. The White House announcement acclaimed Brinster's research to have "provided experimental foundations and inspiration for progress in germline genetic modification in a range of species, which has generated a revolution in biology, medicine, and agriculture."

AVMA Accreditation of Ross University - The American Veterinary Medical Association granted Ross University's School of Veterinary Medicine full accreditation in March. A private institution located on the Island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean, Ross graduates over 400 students per year, 98% of whom are from the U.S. This represents about 10% of the total graduates seeking employment in the United States annually. Not since the then-proprietary Ontario Veterinary College (see footnote) attracted massive numbers of Americans to its for-profit school in Toronto in the late 19th century has a non-American veterinary institution trained so many U.S. citizens as veterinarians. The accreditation of Ross was followed several months later by similar recognition of St. George's School of Veterinary Medicine on the island of Grenada.


AND THE TOP STORY FOR 2011
Rinderpest Eradication
On June 28, the 192 Member countries of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization adopted a Resolution declaring global freedom from Rinderpest. Referred to as cattle plague throughout much of history, this was an infectious disease of cattle, buffalo, yak and many wildlife species. Its devastation has been profound, producing massive starvation, economic ruin and political instability. For example, Rinderpest destroyed 90% of the cattle and millions of wild animals in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1890s. Rinderpest is the first animal disease to be eliminated by human efforts, and only the second disease of any kind, after smallpox in humans.

Footnote: The Ontario Veterinary College was established by Scottish veterinarian, Andrew Smith, as a for-profit college in downtown Toronto in 1862. It operated as a proprietary college for almost 50 years when it became a publicly-supported institution under the umbrella of the University of Toronto. Contemporary Scot, James Law, established the veterinary program at Cornell University in 1868 but his high matriculation and curriculum standards were out of reach of most American students so they migrated north of the border and returned to practice in New York and neighboring states.

Dr. Smith welcomes comments at dfs6@cornell.edu

Spielberg's Version of "War Horse"

Blog by Dr. Donald F. Smith, Cornell University

Posted Dec. 11, 2011

Michael Morpurgo’s book, War Horse, which was transformed into a Tony-award winning Broadway play, opened on the big screen since Christmas Day 2011.



It is hard for us to fathom the massive loss of animal life in the history of war. Morpurgo humanizes the plight of military animals in WWI by making the horse, Joey, the narrator of his own story. He is a British boy’s beloved work horse who is sold into the British cavalry. Through an unusual twist of events, Joey ends up going into battle on the side of the Germans, as well as the British.

The emphasis on Joey’s  health is a subtext of the story. The critical service of both British and American veterinarians and veterinary stations are described many times throughout the book.

When the fighting ceased in 1918, Joey’s plight as a surviving horse on French soil is also chronicled as he and his emaciated equine comrads are auctioned for slaughter as horse meat. This characterization of war animals as “equipment” is repeated years later in Vietnam. At the end of that war, American military dogs which had served so faithfully to locate injured GI’s, warned of enemy ambushes, and searched out booby traps, were left to their own fate―including slaughter for food―as the troops were forced to return to the U.S. without their beloved canine service companions.

Though we instinctively imagine that the millions of horses lost in World War I would have been through combat, Morpurgo paints a more accurate picture where malnutrition, starvation and disease were the greater scourges. Joey’s near fatal encounter with tetanus following his recovery from life-threatening combat injuries is a vivid reminder that horses are highly susceptible to this dreaded infection.

American veterinarian Dr. D. L. Proctor served in India during WW II and was in charge of preparing horses and mules for service in the mountains and jungles of Burma. He told me of the problems with protozal diseases, lacerations, shrapnel wounds. But as far as tetanus goes, things had changed in the 35 years since WW I. “I never saw a case of tetanus while I was in the service because the horses and mules were all vaccinated”, he said. “And this is something because tetanus was the greatest cause of death in horses at that time.”

Animals are still fighting and suffering in war. The New York Times ran an article that captures some of the modern day impact of war on dogs. Titled “After Duty, Dogs Suffer Like Soldiers”, James Dao describes the post-traumatic stress disorder of military dogs in Afghanistan and Iraq.

What War Horse tells us is that animals don’t discriminate between the “good” side and the “bad” side. Joey fought for both British and German armies and received veterinary care from each side.

And this confirms my interview with  WWII Japanese veterinarian, Dr. Takehiko Takahashi, who cared for the war horses assigned to him in Burma with the same zeal and compassion as Dr. Proctor did for the American horses.

Veterinarians take an oath to prevent animal suffering, and in war as in peacetime, it should not matter where they were born or who owns them.

Above photos of the book cover and of the documentary describing the creation of the puppetry in the play version of the story are by Dr. Smith, who invites comments on this and all blogs at dfs6@cornell.edu.

War Horse: Veterinarians Supporting Animal Health in Wartime

Blog by Donald F. Smith, DVM, Cornell University

Posted November 8, 2011, in honor of Veterans Day

Animal lovers are captivated by the elegant puppetry of the Tony award-winning play, War Horse. The turning of the horses’ ears, the movements of their heads and muzzles, the expressiveness of their eyes all lend pure magic to an otherwise serious drama.

Albert is a young British boy who becomes separated from his horse, Joey, when British troops need horses on the fighting fields of France during World War I. Joey is caught in German fire and becomes entangled in barbed wire deliberately set to ensnare the horses. Captured by the enemy, Joey then serves for the German army until he finally ends up in no-man’s land where Albert (now a youthful soldier) is reunited with his injured friend.

Up to six million horses were used in World War I. They carried munitions and pulled heavy artillery and wagons, and conveyed men and supplies. The loss of life from combat injuries was horrendous, but millions more succumbed to disease and starvation. As in the American Civil War, where it is estimated that one million horses and mules died, the tactical value of a horse was sometime considered greater than that of a soldier.

Just as physicians were critical to the health of soldiers, veterinarians were deployed in the war effort to care for horses and other animals. Also like their human medical counterparts, there were veterinarians on both sides of the conflict. This becomes evident in War Horse when the injured Joey is attended to by both English and German veterinarians.

World War I was the last major international conflict in which horses were considered essential to all aspects of the war effort. By the Second World War, horses had been largely replaced by armored vehicles, airplanes and other motorized equipment.

There was at least one major exception, however, and that was the China-Burma-India campaign where both Allied and Japanese forces used mules (U.S.) and horses (Japan) to traverse the almost impenetrable jungles and mountains of Burma.

U.S. veterinarian Dr. Kenneth Gumaer attends to a pack mule
on the trail in Burma, 1944. Photo provided by Dr. Gumaer.
Dr. Gumaer died in 2008 at age 88.

The commitment of both American and Japanese army veterinarians to the health of horses and mules who served in the Burma theater (1941-44) became evident in my interviews with veterinarians from both sides. American veterinarian Kenneth Gumaer spoke of his role in transporting 267 mules in the hold of a ship that left New Orleans in December 1943, was torpedoed off the coast of Florida and endured such heavy seas in the transatlantic crossing that many mules developed massive hematomas. “We only lost one mule in the entire 87-day crossing”, he proudly reported.

Japanese veterinarian Dr. Takehiko Takahashi describes his role in
transporting horses from China to Burma during WWII.
Dr. Takahashi died in 2011 at age 94.
Photo by author, 2010.

Japanese veterinarian, Dr. Takehiko Takahashi, encountered different challenges with his load of horses that left China in 1941. Despite his protests, the ship left port before the horses could be vaccinated, and he recalls another boat chasing them down and hoisting the life-saving anti-Strangles serum onto the deck where he vaccinated the horses in transit. To prevent the animals from succumbing to the sweltering heat and humidity of the ship’s hold as they coursed through the South China Sea, Dr. Takahashi fashioned a series of hoists to periodically raise the horses onto the deck for ventilation and exercise.

Both Drs. Gumaer and Takahashi related the unimaginable horror on the mountainous trails and jungle passages in Burma. Starvation and parasites took huge tolls on the lives of both man and beast. Animals carrying heavy packs sometimes lost their footing on the narrow mountain trails and fell to their death. Many Japanese horses were killed by low level strafing of British aircraft.

By the time the victorious American forces captured the key airfield of Myitkyina from the Japanese in spring 1944, only one-third of the thousands of mules had survived. All of the Japanese horses died.

War Horse is a cogent reminder that the military exploits of warring nations exact an enormous toll on animal life and that the veterinary care for all military animals―it is more likely to be dogs now than horses―is as essential today as it was during conflicts of previous decades.

On Veterans Day, pause to remember the animals that are casualties of mankind's wars. And as the Holiday season approaches, consider seeing the spectacular show, War Horse. It plays at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Dr. Smith invites comments at dfs6@cornell.edu