Celebration of World Veterinary Day 2024

As we celebrate the 2024 World Veterinary Day in Nigeria, a brief history of our profession for institutional memory will be appropriate.

The word “veterinarian” is from the Latin word veterinarius and came into use in the mid-1600s. Veterinary medicine at the beginning focused mainly on the health of horse stock because horses were used for transportation, labour and powering of most machinery. The iconic name of the steam locomotive is Iron Horse. Later on, the profession progressed into food-producing animals, followed by companion animals and eventually to the environment. However, the ultimate objective of the veterinary profession is serving humanity by ensuring the availability of wholesome commodities of animal origin, caring for working and companion animals for company, therapy, sports and recreation and ensuring sustainable ecosystems. This is what veterinarians sign up for.

Modern veterinary medicine began with the control of Rinderpest (cattle plague). The disease rinderpest was having a field day causing massive cattle deaths leading to human destitution and deaths in rural Europe until when in the 18th century, it invaded and devastated the Papal herds. Now the whole of Europe was appalled and Pope Clement XI was alarmed by the temerity of this plague in destroying the Papal herd.

All agreed that this plague has neither respect for constituted authority nor for religion and has now crossed the red line. The virus therefore attracted the Holy See dreadful curse. Our Fela’s song entitled, ‘Trouble Sleep Yanga Waken Am’ aptly describes the situation.

Pope Clement XI immediately instructed his physician, Dr Giovanni Maria Lancisi, to prescribe measures for the suppression of the plague. Lancisi concluded that it was a contagion that is exceedingly fine and pernicious particles that pass from one body to another and called it Bovilla peste. His recommendations for its containment were; 1. slaughter to reduce spread (stamping out), 2. restricted movement of cattle (quarantine), 3. burial of whole animals in lime, and 4. inspection of meat. These recommendations were made in 1713 and to date remain the core principles of infectious animal disease control in Veterinary Medicine.

This led to the creation of the first Veterinary school on 4th August 1761 in Lyon, France. The 1st class of 38 students had ages ranging from 11-30 years and were admitted in 1762. The admission requirements were: 1. ability to read and write 2. evidence of baptism 3. certificate of good conduct 4. and a most, not a physician (So the Vets and Medics rivalry started from Day 1). Thereafter many vet schools were established in Europe but in Africa, the 1st Vet School was established in Egypt in 1827 while in Nigeria the 1st Vet faculty was established at the University of Ibadan in 1963 followed by Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria in 1965. Today there are 14 Veterinary faculties in Nigeria and the Veterinary Council of Nigeria (VCN), the regulatory board of the profession has over 10,500 qualified persons recorded in its register.

To combat rinderpest in Nigeria, the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) then referred to as Veterinary Department was established in Zaria, Northern Nigeria in 1924. Coincidentally in the same year, the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) later changed to Word Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) a global authority on animal health, was also established in Paris, France. Both organizations, NVRI and WOAH celebrate their centenary this year.

Mass vaccination and movement control were the main tools used to control rinderpest in Nigeria. Vaccination was firstly, with anti-rinderpest hyper-immune serum before the introduction of Plowright’s Tissue culture rinderpest vaccine (TCRV). The field use of TCRV started in 1956 and became the main vaccine used to eradicate rinderpest. With the advent of this efficacious vaccine and a better understanding of rinderpest epidemiology, experts in 1987 predicted that rinderpest is an eradicable disease. To accomplish that, FAO-Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP) was developed in 1994. That was the beginning of the end of Rinderpest.

In Nigeria, after a series of mass vaccinations, the last confirmed outbreak of rinderpest was in 1987 and vaccination was therefore stopped on 1st April 1998. Globally rinderpest vaccination was all stopped in 2006. Since rinderpest had been eradicated in Europe, China, Russia and the Far East since the 1960s, declaration of global freedom from the disease was made in 2011.

Rinderpest is the second infectious disease but the first animal disease eradicated from the world, smallpox being the first. In 2012 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE) established FAO-WOAH Rinderpest Joint Advisory Committee (JAC); a committee of seven international experts to advise the two organisations on post-eradication activities to maintain global freedom from rinderpest. JAC operated between 2012 to 2023 and its main mandate was to track and reduce global stocks of rinderpest virus–containing material (RVCM) especially those in unsafe holding facilities. This was successfully accomplished.

On global eradication of infectious diseases, the Vets and Medics have killed one disease each, namely rinderpest and smallpox, respectively and several more to go. Already, the second professional bout has commenced with medics having a head start on a second potential kill, namely the eradication of poliomyelitis (polio) but the Vets are not too far behind with the potential for double kill, the eradication of the Peste des petits ruminant (PPR) and Rabies by 2030.

Lest we forget, the Nigerian Vets had a history of local killing of another disease after which we went to sleep in celebration and unfortunately, the disease resurrected with a vengeance. Avian Influenza (AI) a viral disease posing a major threat to the national poultry industry with a potential for a global pandemic was detected in Nigeria in 2006. Against all odds, the Nigerian Vets with assistance of global partners stood up to the challenge and successfully managed and eradicated AI within two years (2006-2008) to the bewilderment of many sceptics. So Nigerian Vets have a reputation for achieving a difficult task if they are committed to it. Therefore, with the same dedication, Peste des petits ruminant and Rabies, the two diseases earmarked for global eradication can suffer the same fate. So, let’s keep the vets/medic rivalry because it brings the best out of the two professions which is good for humanity and the world in general. To quote an old cliché ‘Who dares wins’

While wishing my colleagues a happy World Veterinary Day, One Health, defined as an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems (WOAH, WHO & UNEP) aptly captures the theme ‘Veterinarians are essential health workers’.

Maina is a former chief veterinary officer Nigeria