Inventing the world’s first commercial vaccine for a parasitic disease of cattle (Dictol)
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: Courtesy of the Jarrett Family
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
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Source: University of Glasgow
In the late 1950s George Urquhart, William Mulligan, Frank Jennings, William Jarrett and Ian McIntyre, all members of staff at the Glasgow Veterinary School, developed the world's first vaccine against the lungworm parasite in cattle.
To prepare the vaccine the team used irradiated larvae of the lungworm parasite (Dictyocaulus viviparus). The parasite is a major cause of lung disease (known as parasitic bronchitis) in cattle in temperate countries of the world. This group of Glasgow scientists showed that if the larvae of the parasite were damaged (attenuated) by exposure to X-rays a powerful and long lasting immunity could be induced.
The clinical trials of the vaccine were undertaken across Scotland by the Glasgow scientists and in the final stages involved 8,000 calves on 204 farms.
Dictol is the commercial name of the vaccine and it went into production in the 1960s and has been in continuous production since then. Over the past 50 years, millions of cattle have been successfully vaccinated throughout Europe. It remains the only successful vaccine of its kind in the world.
The research in Glasgow not only led to a major veterinary breakthrough but greatly stimulated attempts in many countries to produce vaccines against other parasitic infections of animals and man.
Veterinarian
Born 1928.
Died 27 August 2011.
William Fleming Hoggan (known as Bill) Jarrett (1928- ) was appointed titular Professor of Veterinary Medicine in 1964 and was Professor of Veterinary Pathology from 1968 until 1990. In 2002 he was awarded the honorary degree of DVMS.
Jarrett studied at the Glasgow Veterinary College, qualifying MRCVS with honours in 1949 and at the University, graduating PhD in 1955. He was a research student for three years before his appointment as a lecturer at the Department of Veterinary Pathology in 1952. He was Head of Hospital Pathology at the department from 1953 until 1961 and then a Reader in Pathology from 1962 to 1965, went on secondment for a year to the University of East Africa and then returned to Glasgow as titular Professor of Experimental Veterinary Medicine. His research interests lay in the fields of tumours viruses, leukemia and immunology and in 1964 his identification of the feline leukaemia virus laid the groundwork for the discovery of the human leukemia virus and the HIV virus.
In 1989, Jarrett was awarded the Scottish Science Award for his research in the fields of cancer and aids. He died on 27 August 2011.
University Link: Alumnus, Honorary Graduate, Professor
GU Degrees: DVMS, 2002; PhD, 1955;
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Veterinary Scientist
Frank Jennings was a veterinary scientist who was Senior Lecturer in Experimental Veterinary Science from 1966 until 1975 when he moved to the Vet School's Pathology Department and became a lecturer there. In 1986 he became a Reader in Veterinary Parasitology.
Jennings was responsible for pioneering the developement of a highly reproducible mouse model of human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). This disease, transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly takes a huge annual toll of human life and domestic livestock. Dr Jenning's contribution enabled the disease to be accurately staged and better understood, leading to the development of new drugs and compounds, also , to treat it. His model, pioneered at the University of Glasgow, is internationally used and recognised.
University Link: Lecturer
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Veterinarian
Died 20 March 2008.
William Ian Mackay McIntyre (1919-2008) was a lecturer at the University's Veterinary School, 1951 to 1961, and the first Professor of Veterinary Medicine, 1961 to 1983. He was Dean of the Veterinary School from 1974 until 1977.
Born in Altnahara in Sutherland, McIntyre studied at Golspie School. After qualifying from the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College he became an assistant in the Medicine Department at the Small Animal Clinic there, and combined departmental work with his own research programme. He collaborated with Professor George Montgomery, in charge of the Pathology Department at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, to study the pathology and epidemiology of leptospirosis in man and animals.
In 1951, McIntyre was appointed Senior Lecturer in Clinical Medicine at the University's Department of Veterinary Studies. He helped develop clinical teaching at the department and pursued a number of research projects, particularly on the development of a vaccine against parasitic worms in cattle. In 1961 he was appointed to the new Chair of Veterinary Medicine.
McIntyre was seconded to the University of East Africa, University College, Nairobi as Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science and Professor of Clinical Studies from 1963 to 1967. He was Director of the International Trypanotolerance Centre in The Gambia, 1984 to 1989. In 1990, he was made a CBE.
University Link: Faculty Dean, Lecturer, Professor
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Veterinary Surgeon
Born 18 November 1921, Glasgow, Scotland.
Died May 2017.
William Mulligan (1921-2017) was the University's first Professor of Veterinary Physiology, 1963 to 1986. He was Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, 1977 to 1980 and Vice-Principal, 1980 to 1983.
Born in Glasgow, Mulligan graduated with first class honours in Chemistry from Queen's University, Belfast, in 1943. He spent two years as an assistant at Queen's and then moved to St Bartholomew's Medical College in London where he became interested in the biochemical aspects of immunology. He was awarded a PhD by the University of London in 1950.
Mulligan came to the University in 1951 as Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Biochemistry, and worked on a project which developed a method for the immunisation against certain worms by vaccines gained from irradiated larvae. He has made numerous contributions to scientific journals on immunology and the use of radiation and radioisotopes in animal science.
University Link: Faculty Dean, Lecturer, Professor, Vice-Principal
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Veterinarian
Born 29 May 1925.
Died 11 January 1997.
George Macdonald Urquhart was titular Professor in Experimental Veterinary Parasitology at the University from 1970 to 1979, and Professor of Veterinary Parasitology from 1979 to 1990.
Urquhart studied at the Glasgow Veterinary College, graduating BVMS in 1947 and winning the Gold Medal and the Donald Campbell Memorial Prize. He spent two years in the Ministry of Agriculture's Parasitology Department and from 1949 to 1956 he was an assistant and then lecturer in the University's Veterinary School, obtaining a PhD in 1955 for his work on liver fluke disease. He worked as a veterinary helminthologist in Kenya for three years and returned to work as a researcher in Glasgow in 1960. In 1968, he was appointed a Reader in Veterinary Parasitology.
Under Urquhart's leadership, the Vet School gained an international reputation as a centre for the study of veterinary parasitology. A notable success came with the development, in collaboration with Bill Jarrett, Bill Mulligan and other colleagues, of the Dictol vaccine to combat parasitic bronchitis in cattle.
Urquhart was President of the World Association for the Advancement of Veterinary Parasitology from 1987 to 1991, as well as Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and an Honorary Member of the British Society Of Parasitology.
University Link: Graduate, Lecturer, Professor
GU Degrees: BVMS, 1947; PhD, 1955;
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