World Agriculture Directory: the home of the world's largest agriculture database. Fastest way to find events, farms and agribusiness that suit your needs. Agriculture Event Directory

Cattlemen Hall of FameBeef cattle barons, cowboys, breeders and builders from around the world

Veterinarians and Animal Scientists

Arnold Theiler: The Swiss Vet Who Built Onderstepoort and Fought Africa's Cattle Plagues

A one-handed Swiss veterinarian arrived in South Africa in 1891 and went on to found the continent's most important animal disease laboratory.

Who was Arnold Theiler?

Arnold Theiler was born on 26 March 1867 in Frick, Switzerland, and earned a veterinary diploma at the University of Zurich in August 1889, aged 22. He reached Cape Town on 6 March 1891. His trunk of equipment was missing on arrival, and within three months he lost his left hand in a farm accident, details recorded in a South African Agricultural Research Council biographical note.

Neither the loss of equipment nor the injury kept him from a career that, within a generation, made him the leading authority on animal disease in southern Africa.

How did Theiler fight rinderpest?

Rinderpest, the cattle plague, swept southern Africa in the 1890s and killed enormous numbers of cattle and wild ruminants. In May 1896 President Paul Kruger appointed Theiler state veterinarian of the South African Republic. That same year, with Herbert Watkins-Pitchford, he developed the first safe, though laborious, serum-virus rinderpest vaccine in about six weeks.

The method used serum from recovered animals together with virus, which gave protection but demanded careful handling and a lot of work for each animal. It was a stopgap that bought time, and the disease was not eradicated worldwide until 2011, after vaccines developed decades later.

East Coast fever, redwater and horse sickness

During the Anglo-Boer War Theiler served as the only veterinarian on the Republic's side, mostly on the Natal front. In 1903 he distinguished East Coast fever from redwater and showed that the brown ear tick transmits it. The parasite was later named Theileria parva in his honor.

He also showed that African horse sickness is caused by a filterable virus, made the first crude vaccine against it, and identified several virus strains. On lamsiekte, a form of botulism in cattle, he showed the disease was linked to phosphorus deficiency in pastures and that phosphate supplements were key to prevention.

Building Onderstepoort

The Veterinary Bacteriological Laboratories of the Transvaal opened in 1908 on the farm De Onderstepoort near Pretoria, a location that soon gave its name to an institution. In 1920 Theiler became Director of Veterinary Research and Education and Dean when the veterinary faculty was established, so research, vaccine production and teaching sat under one roof.

That combination is still the core of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute's own history, which traces the institute's growth from those first laboratories.

The Key to Theiler's Success

Theiler's career shows what happens when a scientist is put where the disease is. He worked in a country where cattle losses were an economic emergency, and he tied each discovery to something a farmer could do.

The record also notes the human costs of the era: the war interrupted his work, and the rinderpest vaccine was laborious to apply.

  • He took a state veterinarian post that put him in direct contact with outbreaks.
  • He partnered with other scientists, as with Watkins-Pitchford on the 1896 rinderpest vaccine.
  • He separated look-alike diseases, such as East Coast fever and redwater, so that control measures could target the right cause.
  • He traced transmission to a specific vector, the brown ear tick, which gave stockowners a practical target.
  • He turned a laboratory into an institution by adding teaching in 1920, creating a pipeline of South African veterinarians.

Honors and retirement

King Edward VII made Theiler a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1907, and King George V made him a Knight Commander in 1914. He first retired in March 1918, rejoined, and left Onderstepoort for good in 1927 at age 60, succeeded by P. J. du Toit. He died in London on 24 July 1936 of a heart attack while attending a conference.

Visit or learn more

The South African National Veterinary Museum preserves material on the profession's history, as described on its history site. For the wider story of cattle, disease and ranching, browse farm.FM's ranching section or read a farm.FM story about cattle disease in Africa.

Timeline

  1. 1867Born in Frick, Switzerland
  2. 1889Earns a veterinary diploma at Zurich
  3. 1891Arrives in Cape Town on 6 March
  4. 1896Appointed state veterinarian; develops a rinderpest vaccine
  5. 1903Distinguishes East Coast fever from redwater
  6. 1907Made C.M.G.
  7. 1908Onderstepoort laboratories open
  8. 1914Made K.C.M.G.
  9. 1920Becomes Director of Veterinary Research and Education and Dean
  10. 1927Retires from Onderstepoort
  11. 1936Dies in London

Frequently asked questions

Who was Arnold Theiler?

He was a Swiss-born veterinary scientist who moved to South Africa in 1891, developed an early rinderpest vaccine, studied East Coast fever and horse sickness, and founded the Onderstepoort veterinary institute.

What did Arnold Theiler discover?

He showed that the brown ear tick transmits East Coast fever, that African horse sickness is caused by a filterable virus, and that the disease lamsiekte is linked to phosphorus deficiency in pastures.

What is Onderstepoort?

It is the veterinary institute near Pretoria that began as the Veterinary Bacteriological Laboratories in 1908 and gained a veterinary faculty in 1920, both under Theiler's leadership.

How did Arnold Theiler lose his hand?

He lost his left hand in a farm accident within three months of reaching South Africa in 1891, according to a biographical note from the Agricultural Research Council.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

More from the hall