Veterinary History
Time Line USA: 1920 -1950
1920s
The 1920's pretty much marked the end of the horse as transportation which was the mainstay of veterinary medicine.
In addition, a severe, general, economic depression in farm prices led to the collaspe of many veterinary practices, the wiping out of many veterinary schools and programs, and a huge reduction in the number of students applying to veterinary school.
On the other hand, this is the decade when our culture became willing to spend money on the care of pets and veterinarians responded by building or converting their practices to include the treatment of dogs and even some cats.
This is also the decade when pet food companies started to become successful at marketing canned dog rations to a dog loving public. The cheapest source of meat, of course, were all the hundreds of thousands of horses no longer needed with the national switch over to motor power.
1920
Of gainfully employed persons, 27 percent were engaged in agriculture.
1921
Field of population genetics in animal breeding founded.
1922
Capper-Volstead Act provided legal status for agricultural cooperatives.
Honeybee Act prohibited the importation of adult honeybees.
1923
1924
President Coolidge appointed a nine-man President's agricultural conference.
1925
Tennessee outlawed teaching evolution in school; Scopes trial held in Dayton, TN.
Discovered that ethylene is the agent responsible for initiating fruit coloring in oranges.
Purnell Act authorized funds for research by agricultural experiment stations on economic and social problems of agriculture.
1926
USDA began inspection of live poultry.
Successful light gasoline tractor invented
Targhee breed of sheep developed.
1927
Federal beef grading initiated.
1928
Bouquets carried on Graf Zeppelin's first transatlantic flight showed the role air travel could play in transporting insect pests and plant diseases.
Antibacterial properties of penicillin discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming. (Not available for commercial use until 1941)
Capper-Ketcham Act provided extension work in agriculture and home economics for men, women, boys, and girls.
Wool Standards Act passed.
Future Farmers of America established.
Ten regional erosion experiment stations set up.
1929
Growing plants in water, hydroponics, invented.
Mediterranean fruit fly discovered in Florida.
First airplane seeding of rice in California.
1930s
1930
Of gainfully employed persons, 21.5 percent were engaged in agriculture.
Tariff Act prohibited imports of meat and animals from countries infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
Strain 19 of Brucella abortus developed; formed basis of brucellosis vaccine.
Controlled citrus blackfly in Cuba using biological control.
1931
First electron microscope built.
1932
1933
Tennessee Valley Authority Act passed.
Washington State College graduates its first female veterinarian, Catherine Elizabeth Roberts. She goes on to be the first licensed female veterinarian in California and is among only twelve in the nation at the time.
1934
Worst drought in U.S. history took place in the Great Plains and covered over 75 percent of the country. (more)
Taylor Grazing Act gave U.S. Department of the Interior power to regulate grazing on public lands in the West.
Jones-Connally Act authorized appropriations for research to eliminate disease from beef and dairy herds.
Glanders of horses eradicated.
USDA and Iowa State Experiment Station imported Danish Landrace hogs.
Line 1 Hereford program started; one of the longest continuing beef cattle line-breeding programs in the U.S.
1935
The establishment of the School of Veterinary Medicine at Tuskegee, Alabama. The first (and only in the US) veterinary school established for primarily black students.
Sulfa drugs discovered.
Otto Stader, VMD
While in small animal practice, he treated an expensive Chow dog with a fractured femur, which he attempted to treat by means of plaster immobilization. The dog chewed off two or three casts and developed serious soft tissue wounds in the process. This lead him to suspect that there were better ways to treat fractures. From his experience with his son‘s bicycle spokes, he developed the external fixator which bears his name today. He manufactured the original Stader splint in the basement of the Geneva Animal Hospital, on a lathe. He had learned from his father who had been a tool and dye maker in Germany. He treated approximately 200 dogs successfully with this external fixator. It was used primarilly for repairing femurs, tibias, fibulas, radii, and ulnae. It became apparent to Dr. Stader and his family that he should move East to enable him to further his interests in veterinary medicine and especially the external fixator. In 1936, the family moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia. He built the Ardmore Animal Hospital on Lancaster Avenue, converting it from a pre-existing home. The animal hospital was state-of the- art, including air conditioning; a large surgery and X-ray, two examination rooms, a pharmacy and four wards of 22 tiled kennels.
Methods for genetic evaluation of beef cattle pioneered.
Two farmers out of every five were tenant farmers.
Atlanta's city directory lists 6 veterinarians
Initiated National Poultry Improvement Plan to improve production and marketing qualities of chickens and turkeys through performance testing.
Developed concept of vegetative waterways, which led to more than 500,000 miles of waterways that channel runoff and prevent severe gully erosion.
1936
1937
First soil conservation district in the U.S. organized.
Published first electron micrographs of bacteria.
1938
Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act passed. Lots of veterinarians employed
Bacillus thuringiensis first sold as insecticide.
Insect-sterilization technique for mating disruption proposed.
First artificial breeding cooperative organized for dairy cattle.
Reported filarial dermatosis of sheep; developed treatment.
First successful distemper vaccine produced by the Fromm brothers. Distemper is very deadly to all canines but the early vaccines were produced to protect young foxes being raised for the fur trade. It would be another 8 years before the vaccine was made available to pet dogs.
1939
World War II began in Europe.
Usefulness of crossbreeding to improve the efficiency of beef production demonstrated.
1940s
1940
Developed and tested soilless media for plant growth; vermiculite discovered.
Of gainfully employed persons, 18 percent were engaged in agriculture.
CHIEF, the last living cavalry horse still carried on government rolls, was foaled in 1932 and purchased by the Army in 1940 at Ft.Robinson, Neb. In December of 1949 he was placed in semi-retirement and was fully retired at Ft. Riley, Kan., in 1958.
1941
Mildew- and rot-proof fabrics and bandages developed.
First simple daily nutrition guide published.
Beltsville small white turkey developed; ancestor of today's commercial turkeys.
United States entered World War II.
Deep-vat fermentation developed in Peoria, IL, allowing mass-production of penicillin.
Demonstrated that methyl bromide is a broad-spectrum biocide and controls nematodes.
1942
First nuclear reactor built.
Discovered chemical structure of DDT; military began to use chemical to protect against typhus.
Induced ovulation in domestic fowl.
Dourine of horses eradicated.
1943
Palatable dehydrated eggs developed. (Oh yeah?)
Developed method for cleaning Navy airplane engines by blasting them with ground corn cobs. Isn't that interesting?
Research to create fruit essences began; led to development of concentrated frozen apple and grape juices.
Texas cattle fever eradicated.
1944
Tuskegee University opens veterinary program for Negro Americans
Organic Act provided for control and eradication of certain animal and plant pests and diseases.
Antibiotic streptomycin isolated from soil microorganisms.
Complement fixation test to diagnose anaplasmosis in cattle developed.
1945
World War II ended.
Food and Agriculture Organization formed by the United Nations.
Developed a process for preparing purified grade of oleic acid from inedible animal fats, used in cosmetics and as lubricants in textile mills.
Bankhead-Flanagan Act provided for expansion of county extension work.
Foot & Mouth disease breaks out in Mexico threatening the US markets leading to a joint country eradication program. This is an interesting story...click here for more.
1946
Research and Marketing Act passed.
1947
Avian leukosis virus first isolated.
Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act passed; replaced Insecticide Act of 1910.
First U.S. case of scrapie diagnosed in sheep.
Organophosphate pesticides developed.
Congress authorized cooperative project with Mexico to eradicate foot-and-mouth disease there.
Discovered antibiotic polymyxin.
Marfed soft white spring wheat released, the major spring wheat grown in Washington until semidwarf wheats were introduced.
1948
Cortisone found to relieve rheumatoid arthritis.
Screened 6,600 plant species for useful chemicals. Found Mexican yam to have highest yield of compound diosgenin, an ingredient that can be used to produce cortisone.
Synthesized esters determined to be similar to the active constituents of pyrethrum; one of these synthetic insecticides, allerthrin, used in aerosol pesticide bombs.
1949
Radiocarbon dating invented.
Researchers invent a new diagnostic test for brucellosis, commonly known as Bang's disease, in dairy cows. By 1959, brucellosis is virtually eliminated.
On This Page:
Veterinary Time Line: 1920 - 1950:
A continuation of our time line with interesting events relating to veterinary medicine in the United States
Other pages about the history of veterinary medicine:
The State of Animal Health in the U.S. before the 1950's
from O.H.V. Stalheim’s book The Winning of Animal Health
In 1884, when the Bureau of Animal Industry was created by Congress, there was no indication that the United States would one day be a leader in animal health, veterinary medicine, or the production of wholesome food.
What few veterinarians who were available had little in the way of effective treatments nor people willing to pay for treatment. They could do some dentistry and treat wounds, and effectively treat some of the non-infectious diseases and conditions, but for many problems they were helpless. They couldn’t even diagnose infectious diseases let alone cure them.
Colic, for example, killed 12,500 horses a year on the manure-clogged streets of New York.
Equine flu among horses in the big cities paralyzed transportation.
Serious disease outbreaks among food animals up to 1884 included hog chloera, bovine abortion, bovine pleuropneumonia, Texas Fever, anthrax, mad itch, swamp fever, foot and mouth disease, equine influenze, fowl chloera, and ergotism. These diseases were causing serious hardships and problems. Kansas and other states enacted strict quarantine laws that were enforced by cowboys with shotguns. It was because of the huge economic and emotional devastation that these diseases caused that the bureau was created.
No one really knew what caused theses diseases. Knowledgeable veterinarians were almost non existent, and partly because of numerous quacks selling various useless nostrums and remedies, there was very little respect for “horse doctors”
Despite being totally dependent on horses and mules, the U.S. Army did not commission veterinarians until 1916.
Thanks to the efforts of the new Bureau of Animal Industry, several major diseases were eradicated, reduced or controlled...usually based on the successful European fight against Rinderpest by killing all sick and contact cattle. Early successes included the eradication of bovine pleuropneumonia and the control of Hog Cholera and Texas Fever. Hog Cholera killed as many as 50 percent of all hogs during outbreaks in the 1800's!
But despite these early successes, the state of animal health and care prior to World War 2 was awful:
Huge numbers of animals died from infections, untreated diseases, abuse, malnutrition, parasitism, toxins, injuries, and starvation.
Disease constantly threatened farm families with disaster.
For many families, the death of a milk cow was a calamity.
As the west opened up after the Civil War, and farming methods changed from small, family operations to larger operations, with animals being exchanged, shipped, and transported without thought of disease control, tuberculosis and bovine abortion (brucellosis) became rampant.
In 1922, 4 percent of all cattle had tuberculosis. In 1936, over 1 million cattle tested positive for tuberculosis or brucellosis.
Until an effective vaccine was developed in 1916, blackleg killed 10% of all calves born each year. Early vaccines developed for other disease turned out to be mostly useless of harmful.
Leptosporosis, a major cause of kidney disease to this day, first appeared in dogs, then cattle, then swine. By 1955, the loss was an estimated $100 million annually.
Other diseases causing major losses included pinkeye, rabies, anthrax, pox, Johne’s disease, milk fever, trichomoniasis, ketosis, leukosis, bovine viral diarrhea, vesicular stomatitis, dysentery, and catarrhal fever.
In 1918, millions of people died of flu, killing many more people than World War One, and apparently, this human flu mutated to become swine influenza killing millions of pigs in the midwest.
In the 1930's, erysipelas became common in swine.
Horses suffered from strangles, severe parasites whenever crowded, encephalitis, dourine, and glanders.
But just listing all these terrible diseases doesn’t begin to describe the poor plight of many of the animals on farms or working in cities.
During the 1920's, first the price of wheat and then most agricultural products crashed by as much as 50% causing a severe agricultural depression. Many farmers could barely survive and those that did were rewarded next with not a recovery, but THE GREAT DEPRESSION and for much of the country: THE DROUGHT! Farmers couldn’t afford to feed their animals.
The U.S. Dept of Agriculture (USDA) started emergency programs to reduce the number of swine and cattle: veterinarians no longer able to survive in private practice went to work for these programs going from farm to farm inspecting, appraising, and killing animals! Those too weak to be transported to a slaughterhouse were killed on the farm; the rest were processed with the meat given to people “on relief”. Cattle owners received $16 a head.
Starving animals were common on the western ranges; one water hole was surrounded by 10.000 dead cattle. The bones were gathered and made into fertilizer.
During the Depression, an average MidWest farmer kept about 15 cows, raising them for cream to sell in town and hoping to feed out the calves on the skimmed milk and on pasture as they got older. But confined in winter to a pen in the barn, the calves developed rickets, ringworm, diarrhea, and pneumonia and many didn’t survive.
Each year, most midwest farmers raised 50-100 pigs, but if raised on concrete, they became anemic, and if raised on dirt became infested with parasites and “necro”...a filth borne disease. Most pigs were constantly itching due to mange.
Sheep and chickens suffered horribly from parasites.
Horses were often overworked and underfed. Many had terrible collar sores on their shoulders and necks. And so many horses died of sleeping sickness in the 1930's and 1940's that lame or crippled horses were forced to work. As soon as farmers had enough money, they bought tractors and thousands and thousands of unwanted horses were sold to the glue factories and to the canned dog food companies that started to pop up in the 1920's.
Only the energetic intervention of the New Deal relief programs sustained farmers and their animals. There were very few business opportunities for vets wanting to do private practice. Luckily for the profession, there were lots of government jobs available fighting the overwhelming number of disease problems devastating our livestock industry. It took a while, but things were going to get much better.
