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Veterinarians and Animal Scientists

Daniel Elmer Salmon: America's First DVM and Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry

An orphan from New Jersey became the country's first doctor of veterinary medicine and the federal government's chief fighter of cattle disease.

Who was Daniel Elmer Salmon?

Daniel Elmer Salmon was born in July 1850 in Mount Olive, New Jersey. His father died when he was a baby and his mother when he was eight, and a second cousin raised him. He worked on a farm and as a clerk in a country store before he found veterinary medicine, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association's profile of him.

He went on to hold a title no one had held before him in the United States: doctor of veterinary medicine. From that start he moved into the federal government at the moment Americans realized that animal disease was a national economic problem, and he spent two decades running the agency created to fight it.

How did Salmon become America's first DVM?

Salmon entered Cornell University's first veterinary class in 1868. He finished a Bachelor of Veterinary Science in 1872 and a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1876, the first doctorate of its kind awarded in the country. He also did clinical study in France, then the center of the profession.

He practiced in Newark, New Jersey, left in 1877 to lecture at the University of Georgia, and in 1879 worked for New York State on contagious pleuropneumonia in cattle. A USDA appointment followed, sending him to study animal disease in the Southern states, with particular attention to Texas cattle fever. He also looked at fowl cholera, swine disease and a nodular disease of sheep.

Building the Bureau of Animal Industry

Congress created the Bureau of Animal Industry in May 1884 after heavy cattle losses from lung plague, formally contagious bovine pleuropneumonia. Salmon served as its chief for its first 21 years. Under him the bureau moved toward research, pathology and bacteriology, and it began federal inspection of animals imported and exported.

Among the scientists on his staff, Theobald Smith helped him show that sterilized cultures of dead bacteria can confer immunity. Salmon promoted the germ theory of disease and showed through experiments that multiplying microorganisms caused fowl cholera. The genus Salmonella carries his name, although Smith found the first bacterium of the genus, a distinction also noted in the National Agricultural Library's page on Salmon.

Lung plague, Texas fever and the cattle trade

The bureau's first great campaign was against contagious bovine pleuropneumonia. According to the AVMA profile, it was eradicated in a little over eight years. The bureau also studied and worked to control Texas cattle fever, which devastated northern herds that met cattle driven up from the South. His subordinates showed that ticks transmit that disease, work that gave ranchers and regulators a target they could act on.

The bureau improved import inspections and quarantines and investigated human diseases passed from livestock. For beef producers, the practical result was access to markets that would otherwise have closed to American cattle.

The Key to Salmon's Success

Salmon's results came from a few repeatable habits that show up in the record: he built a scientific staff, he treated disease as a problem of evidence, and he used the federal government's reach to enforce what the evidence said.

Credit also has to be shared. The tick finding behind Texas fever control was made by his staff, and he is remembered for creating the conditions in which it happened.

  • He shifted the bureau toward research, pathology and bacteriology instead of inspection alone.
  • He promoted the germ theory and tested it with experiments, as with fowl cholera.
  • He employed strong scientists such as Theobald Smith and let their findings shape policy.
  • He started federal import and export inspections and tighter quarantines to stop disease at the border.
  • He spread the profession's standards by founding the National Veterinary College in 1892 and serving as dean until 1898.

The 1905 resignation and the later years

In August 1905 an investigation found that Salmon had been a partner in a company holding a bureau contract for meat inspection labels. The solicitor concluded he had not meant to profit, but Salmon resigned afterward.

In 1906 he went to South America to head the veterinary school at the University of the Republic in Montevideo, Uruguay. He organized its veterinary department and led it for five years. Later he ran a factory producing hog cholera serum. He died in August 1914 of pneumonia at 64.

Salmon's legacy and honors

Salmon was president of the United States Veterinary Medical Association when it became the American Veterinary Medical Association in September 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska, and he later served a term as AVMA president. Cornell University and the National Association of Federal Veterinarians give awards in his name, and the Saddle and Sirloin Portrait Foundation lists him in its portrait gallery under 1918.

For the wider story of cattle, ranching and animal health, see farm.FM's ranching section and a farm.FM story on cattle tick fever. Salmon's own legacy is the idea that a national livestock industry needs a national scientific agency.

Timeline

  1. 1850Born in Mount Olive, New Jersey
  2. 1868Enters Cornell University's first veterinary class
  3. 1872Earns a Bachelor of Veterinary Science
  4. 1876Earns the first American DVM
  5. 1884Congress creates the Bureau of Animal Industry; Salmon becomes chief
  6. 1892Founds the National Veterinary College in Washington
  7. 1898Presides as the veterinary association becomes the AVMA
  8. 1905Resigns after a contract investigation
  9. 1906Takes charge of the veterinary school in Montevideo
  10. 1914Dies in August

Frequently asked questions

Who was Daniel Elmer Salmon?

He was the first American to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine degree, in 1876 at Cornell, and the first chief of the USDA Bureau of Animal Industry, serving 21 years from 1884.

What did Daniel Salmon do for cattle?

He led the federal campaign that eradicated contagious bovine pleuropneumonia in a little over eight years and directed bureau work on Texas cattle fever, import inspection and quarantine.

Is Salmonella named after Daniel Salmon?

Yes. The genus Salmonella is named after him, although his colleague Theobald Smith identified the first bacterium in it while working at the bureau.

Why did Daniel Salmon resign from the Bureau of Animal Industry?

In August 1905 an investigation found he had been a partner in a firm holding a bureau contract for meat inspection labels. The solicitor said he did not mean to profit, but he resigned.

Sources and further reading

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

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