Vetnuus | May 2024 33 Onderstepoort residence centenary celebrations <<< 32 have been published by private practitioners, state veterinarians and researchers at Onderstepoort over the past 120 years. Through a citation software programme called VosViewer, Johan highlighted the centrality of the South African researchers and their work done on canine babesiosis. Like Banie, Johan showed that later researchers also overlooked the work done by their colleagues of the past. For example, Malherbe did a doctoral study on all the clinicopathological changes in the 1950s. He noted that dogs left untreated can make a full recovery. This finding, coupled with those of Theiler in 1904 in which he demonstrated immunity in older dogs, was not cited in later articles on asymptomatic carrier status. Moreover, both the nervous and the chronic forms of the disease were described by Malherbe and Parkin in 1951 in which they made mention of the similarities to human malaria - another paper overlooked in later studies. Johan finished off with a culmination of studies in which the genomic, cytokine, coagulation and endocrine changes in this disease firmly established canine babesiosis as a significant animal model of acute inflammatory disease. Top marks go to Dr Katja Bier who paid attention for the full duration of the two presentations and also asked excellent questions! Woolly sheep, more mannequins and a dystocia Xander Juhl-Jürgens, Dirk Wijnbeek and Salmo Cilliers of the House Committee then took the group to the skills laboratory to see how the current students of Onderstepoort get to play around before they are let loose on real animals. Johan noted that the skills laboratory at Onderstepoort is the best in the world and Banie demonstrated handling a bovine dystocia like a pro, harkening back to his initial appointment at the Faculty in the Department of Theriogenology, despite being a renowned veterinary parasitologist for the past 40 years. A man of many talents! The Onderstepoort Skills Lab acquired top-of-the-range largeanimal models but also produces its own animal simulators through in-house model development. The laboratory was officially opened on 16 April 2015. Liezl Kok is an artist who has been involved from the start in developing the artificial skins, cotyledons, veins etc. Sunset, G.O.A.T. centenary wine and dinner at the OP Clubhouse The highlight of the day was the Alumni Dinner hosted in great style by Paballo Lekgate of the House Committee of OP Village. Black tablecloths, fairy lights and a perfect ambience on the lawn by the Clubhouse and swimming pool set the scene for a memorable evening. The food was delicious, the G.O.A.T. centenary wine excellent, the company charming and the sunset divine. Proscht to the next century! >>> 34 For another good read, see: Leisewitz, et al. (2019) A clinical and pathological description of 320 cases of naturally acquired Babesia rossi infection in dogs. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. vetpar.2019.06.005 Read more on the Onderstepoort skills laboratory at: https://www.up.ac.za/ production-animal-studies/news/ post_2069025-new-skills-laboratoryhuge-boost-for-clinical-training-infaculty-of-veterinary-science Heloise Heyne, tour guide for Onderstepoort Residence alumni at the South African National Veterinary Museum on 5 April 2024.
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