The role of the South African Veterinary Council, with special reference to the period 1982-2011.

The current South African Veterinary Council (SAVC) has a long and laborious history associated with the legislation responsible for its establishment. The forerunner of the SAVC, the South African Veterinary Board, was established in terms of the Veterinary Act 1933 (Act No. 16 of 1933), which was launched through Parliament as a private motion by Dr Hjalmar Reitz M.

Lamsiekte (botulism): solving the aetiology riddle.

The reason or reasons why it took Sir Arnold Theiler so many years to unravel the riddle of the aetiology of lamsiekte in cattle and whether P.R. Viljoen's lifelong grudge for receiving insufficient credit from Theiler for his research contribution was justified are analysed in this paper.

Veterinary education in South Africa: the classes of 1938 and 1939.

Concise descriptions are given of the life histories of the 10 members of the classes of 1938 and 1939. All of them initially joined the government service, Hugo, Steenekamp and Schatz spending their entire careers in the South African Veterinary (Field) Services. Mansvelt, the first recipient of the much-coveted Theiler medal, was the 2nd veterinarian to be appointed Director of Veterinary Services, a position specially created for the 'Field' in 1962.

Veterinary education in South Africa: the classes of 1936 & 1937.

Concise descriptions are given of the varied life histories of the students of the classes of 1936 and 1937. Consisting of 14 students, the class of 1936 was the largest of the pre-war classes of the Onderstepoort Faculty. Three of the 6 students in the 1937 class were actually repeating their final year, therefore the total number described below is 17 rather than 20.

Introductory keynote address. Theiler and the 'Spirit of Onderstepoort'.

Although Theiler became internationally known for his pioneering veterinary research a distant century ago, there are probably few veterinary researchers today who have not heard of him. Onderstepoort, the research institute he created, is equally well, if not even better, known. Moreover, the name Onderstepoort is not only associated with his institute but also with the only South African faculty of veterinary science, another Theiler 'baby'.