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Veterinarians and Animal Scientists

David Bruce and the Tsetse Fly: How Nagana Was Traced to Its Source

A British army doctor camped in the Zululand bush and identified the parasite and the fly behind a disease that kept cattle out of huge stretches of Africa.

Who was Sir David Bruce?

David Bruce was a British army doctor and parasitologist whose fieldwork in southern Africa explained how a deadly cattle disease spread. His studies of nagana, an affliction of domestic animals, showed it was carried by the bite of an infected tsetse fly. That finding mattered to every farmer who tried to keep cattle or horses in tsetse country.

He built on this to show that sleeping sickness in humans is also caused by a trypanosome carried by the same kind of fly. The record in the Encyclopedia.com entry on Bruce sums up this link between a livestock disease and a human one, and the Wikipedia article on Bruce gives a longer overview.

Early life and training

Bruce was born in Melbourne on 29 May 1855 and attended Stirling High School in Scotland. In 1876 he entered the University of Edinburgh to study zoology, switched to medicine and graduated MB CM in 1881. After a spell as an assistant in Reigate, Surrey, he married Mary Elizabeth Sisson in 1883.

The same year he was commissioned as a surgeon after passing out of the Army Medical School at Netley on 4 August 1883. His marriage was a working partnership too: his wife would later share his field camps and even assist in his operating theatre.

Malta fever and time in Koch's laboratory

From 1884 Bruce served as resident medical officer at the Station Hospital in Valletta, Malta. There he identified the organism then called Micrococcus melitensis, later Brucella melitensis, as the cause of Malta fever. His 1887 report on a bacterial agent for the disease is the first big result of his career.

Between 1888 and 1894 he worked in Robert Koch's laboratory in Berlin and then served as assistant professor of pathology at Netley from 1889 to 1894. This training in careful laboratory method prepared him for field research that had to be done far from any institution.

The nagana investigation at Ubombo, 1894 to 1897

In 1894 Bruce went to Zululand to investigate nagana. He and his wife spent about two years in a remote bush camp at Ubombo. From that work came the identification of the parasite Trypanosoma brucei as the cause of nagana, or tsetse-fly disease.

The experiments established the chain of transmission: a parasite in the blood, carried from animal to animal by the tsetse fly. For cattle owners, the practical meaning was blunt. Animals taken into fly country could fall sick even without contact with other infected stock.

Sleeping sickness and later commissions

In 1903 Bruce led the Royal Society's sleeping sickness commission to Uganda. He established that sleeping sickness is a trypanosome disease spread by the tsetse fly. The work grew straight out of the nagana studies in Zululand.

He went on to lead a Mediterranean fever commission to Malta in 1904, a third sleeping sickness commission to Uganda in 1908 and a commission to Nyasaland in 1911. In the South African War he ran a large military hospital during the siege of Ladysmith. For more on farm health topics, the ranching section of farm.FM follows how livestock keepers deal with disease today.

The Key to Bruce's Success

Bruce's results came from a mix of laboratory skill and a willingness to live where the disease lived. The record shows a scientist who moved between hospital, laboratory and bush camp rather than staying in one place.

His work also had limits. Identifying the fly and the parasite explained transmission but did not by itself give farmers a cure, and fieldwork in Zululand was long and isolating.

  • He trained with Koch in Berlin, picking up rigorous methods for identifying microorganisms.
  • He went to the source, camping about two years at Ubombo in Zululand to study nagana in the field.
  • He identified both parts of the chain, the trypanosome parasite and the tsetse fly that carries it.
  • He worked as a team with his wife, who shared the camps and the operating theatre.
  • He applied the animal finding to people, leading the 1903 Uganda commission on sleeping sickness.

Honors, later life and legacy

Bruce became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899, a CB in 1905, was knighted in 1908 and became KCB in 1918. He received the Royal Society medal in 1904 and the Buchanan medal in 1922, and he was president of the British Association in 1924. In 1914 he became commandant of the Royal Army Medical College, and he retired in 1919 to chair the governing body of the Lister Institute.

He died on 27 November 1931 at Christchurch, Westminster, four days after his wife died. Details of his life are collected on the Netley Military Cemetery biography, and a farm.FM reader can start with a farm.FM story on cattle disease in Africa.

Timeline

  1. 1855Born in Melbourne on 29 May
  2. 1881Graduates MB CM from the University of Edinburgh
  3. 1884Takes up post at the Station Hospital, Valletta, Malta
  4. 1887Reports a bacterial cause for Malta fever
  5. 1894Begins nagana research in Zululand
  6. 1899Elected Fellow of the Royal Society
  7. 1903Leads the Royal Society's sleeping sickness commission to Uganda
  8. 1908Knighted
  9. 1931Dies on 27 November at Westminster

Frequently asked questions

What did David Bruce discover about nagana?

Working in Zululand from 1894, Bruce identified the parasite Trypanosoma brucei as the cause of nagana and showed the disease spreads by the bite of an infected tsetse fly.

Who was Sir David Bruce?

Sir David Bruce (1855-1931) was a British army doctor and parasitologist known for work on Malta fever, nagana and sleeping sickness, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1899.

Why does nagana matter to cattle people?

Nagana, carried by tsetse flies, is a disease of domestic animals in Africa. Bruce's finding that the fly spreads it gave later workers a target for control in fly country.

Where did Bruce work on nagana?

He and his wife lived about two years in a remote bush camp at Ubombo in Zululand, South Africa, between 1894 and 1897.

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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