Bernhard Bang: The Danish Vet Who Identified the Cause of Bovine Brucellosis

Who was Bernhard Bang?

Bernhard Bang was born on 7 June 1848 on the Danish island of Zealand. He earned a medical bachelor's degree in 1872, a veterinary degree from the Royal School of Veterinary Medicine in 1873 and a medical doctorate in 1880. He taught at the veterinary school, where he became a leading scientist, and served as veterinary adviser to the Danish government, details drawn from a JAVMA News profile.

The sources differ on when he died. The JAVMA profile gives 1932, at age 83, and also mentions 1936, which conflicts with that age, so this profile uses 1932 and flags the discrepancy.

What is Bang's disease?

Bang's disease is the name many cattle people still use for brucellosis, the infection that causes cows to abort late in pregnancy and that can pass to people as undulant fever. In 1897 Bang identified Brucella abortus, the main cause of brucellosis in cattle. The organism is known as Bang's bacillus.

Before that finding, contagious abortion was a costly mystery in dairy and beef herds. A named cause made it possible to build tests and, later, vaccination and eradication programs, which in the United States became a major cooperative effort between state and federal agencies.

The Bang method against tuberculosis

Bang is also remembered for a tuberculosis control system. The Bang method separated cattle that reacted to the tuberculin test from healthy ones, keeping them in two herds. Calves were removed at birth and raised away from reactors, and milk was pasteurized.

The method was widely adopted in Europe and less so in America, according to the JAVMA profile. It had one obvious advantage for cattle owners: valuable breeding stock was not slaughtered the moment it tested positive.

Milk, smallpox and other research

Bang's research reached beyond cattle herds. He worked on smallpox vaccination and on a necrosing bacillus in swine, and he was an early advocate of heating milk to kill bacteria. The Britannica entry on him, listed among the standard encyclopedia biographies, is another place to read about him.

Honors and legacy

Utrecht's Veterinary College gave Bang a veterinary doctorate in 1921, and the International Veterinary Congress made him an honorary member in 1930. His name stays attached to the disease and the bacillus.

A short biography in Spanish, Biografias y Vidas, gives a compact summary of his life for readers who prefer it.

Why Bang matters to cattle people

Brucellosis shaped how beef and dairy producers buy, sell and show cattle. Many states and countries require testing or vaccination before animals move to shows or sales, and the idea behind those rules, that a herd should be known to be free of a named disease, descends from the early work of researchers like Bang. His tuberculosis method carried a similar logic: know which animals are infected, keep them apart from the clean ones, and protect the next generation of calves.

He also showed how a single laboratory finding can change a farm routine. Once the bacillus had a name, veterinarians could test blood, trace infection from herd to herd and advise owners on which animals to keep, isolate or sell.

Any rancher who has vaccinated heifers for brucellosis or watched a herd test is working in a line that begins with Bang. For more on herd health and cattle history, see farm.FM's ranching section and a farm.FM story about brucellosis in cattle.