Sydney Dodd

Sydney Dodd
Born c. 1874
Sevenoaks, Kent, England
Died 20 October 1926
Sydney, Australia
Scientific career
Fields Veterinary Pathology, Bacteriology, and Protozoology
Institutions University of Sydney
Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly
Daspoort Laboratories, Pretoria
Royal Veterinary College
Thesis Spirochaetosis in Fowls in Queensland (1910)

Sydney Dodd, FRCVS (c. 1874 – 20 October 1926), was a British veterinary surgeon and scientist. He contributed to the development of bacteriology and protozoology in England, South Africa and Australia. Dodd established a research station in Queensland that was to become the Animal Research Institute, and he was the first lecturer in veterinary bacteriology at the University of Sydney. He became one of the foremost bacteriologists in Australia.[1]

Family

Sydney Dodd was born about 1874 in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. His parents were Francis Dodd (born c. 1827, Ireland), and Amy Dodd (born c. 1842, Sittingbourne, Kent). He had at least two older brothers, George and William, and a younger brother Francis.[2]

He married Clara (also known as Clare) Annie Brooker, a hospital nurse (born 1879, Chatham, Kent), in 1904 while living in Wealdstone, Middlesex.[3]

Dodd died in 1926 after a short illness at his home in Cremorne, Sydney, Australia, and his remains were taken to the Rookwood Crematorium in Sydney for interment.[4]

Education

Dodd graduated in 1902 with honours from the Royal Veterinary College, London, becoming a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (MRCVS).[5]

In 1910 the University of Melbourne conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Science.[6] His thesis was: Spirochaetosis in Fowls in Queensland.[7]

Career

After graduating Dodd initially continued at the Royal Veterinary College as Demonstrator of Pathology and assistant to John McFadyean, Professor of Pathology and Bacteriology and a leading veterinary scientist. This post provided Dodd with experience in veterinary research and vaccine preparation.[8] Throughout his career Dodd was to publish many of his scientific papers in the quarterly started and edited by McFadyean, The Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics ISSN 0368-1742.

South Africa

Dodd had served during the Boer War prior to his veterinary qualification. In 1905 after returning to South Africa he became the assistant government veterinary bacteriologist to Arnold Theiler at the Daspoort laboratories in Pretoria. In addition to taking charge of vaccine production, his research work was notable for spirochaetosis in livestock and is credited for recognising its bacterial cause in pigs which was published in 1906 as A Disease of the Pig, due to a Spirochæta. While in South Africa he contracted typhoid in early 1907.[9]

It was in South Africa that Dodd gained experience with tick-borne diseases of livestock. In 1907 he was admitted a fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (FRCVS).[8] His fellowship resulted in part by investigating a then unknown respiratory infection in turkeys, Epizootic Pneumo-enteritus of the Turkey (1905), later deemed likely to have been infectious sinusitis (caused by Mycoplasma gallisepticum) complicated with fowl cholera.[10]

Queensland

The Queensland Government engaged Dodd in 1907 as Principal Veterinary Surgeon and Bacteriologist, following a cattle tick conference in May of that year.[11] Instructed by the Queensland Government, Dodd visited North America on-route to Australia to investigate bovine tick fever in the United States and Canada (also known as redwater or Texas fever: see babesiosis, anaplasmosis).[12]

In Queensland Dodd proposed an experimental farm for livestock disease which he established as the Stock Experiment Station in 1909 at Yeerongpilly, Brisbane, later to become the Animal Research Institute. His research at this time included the first detection in Australia of a species of Theileria in cattle, a parasitic protozoan, published in 1910 as Piroplasmosis of Cattle in Queensland.[13]

Dodd resigned from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock in April 1910, dissatisfied after seeking clarification of his duties.[14]

Sydney University

In 1911 Dodd was appointed the first lecturer in veterinary bacteriology at the University of Sydney.[15] He also lectured in veterinary pathology and was an honorary lecturer in preventive medicine at the University, where he remained until his death in 1926.[16]

Along with teaching, Dodd continued to perform valuable research. His work on black disease in sheep found an association between the causal bacterium and a liver fluke, The Etiology of Black Disease: Being Further Studies in a Braxy-Like Disease of Sheep (1921).[17]

Military service

Before qualifying, Dodd served in South Africa with the British Army during the Second Boer War (1899–1902).[9] Descriptions of his service include joining the Army Veterinary Department, and veterinary officer to the 10th Hussars.[18][5]

At the start of World War I Dodd was commissioned a captain in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps. He served with the Sea Transport Service on the Barambah taking troops and horses to Egypt in December 1914, and his service ended after returning to Australia on the Maiwu in March, 1915.[19][20]

Recognition

Shortly after his death, the Sydney Dodd Memorial Committee was formed in 1927 to honour his contributions to veterinary research and teaching. Funds were raised and a bronze bust by G. Rayner Hoff was unveiled at the Veterinary School of the University of Sydney in 1928.[21]

Notes

References

  • "Francis Dodd, Dartford, Kent". 1881 Census Returns, England and Wales, RG11, 865/17. p. 27. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  • Holy Trinity, Wealdstone, Register of Marriages Dec 1903 – Aug 1913, DRO/162/013. London Metropolitan Archives. 1904. p. 15.
  • "New Bacteriological Expert". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 20 November 1907. p. 4. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • "Veterinary Department. Arrival of New Director. Interview with Mr. Dodds [sic]". Queensland Times, Ipswich Herald & General Advertiser. National Library of Australia. 26 March 1908. p. 12. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  • Queensland Government (28 March 1908), "Department of Agriculture and Stock", Queensland Government Gazette, XC (64), p. 748, ISSN 0155-9370
  • "The Tick Pest. What America is Doing. Report by Mr Dodd". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 30 April 1908. p. 2. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • "Stock Department. The Resignation of Mr. S. Dodd". The Brisbane Courier. National Library of Australia. 24 August 1910. p. 5. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • Dodd, Sydney (1910). Spirochaetosis in Fowls in Queensland (D.V.Sc.). University of Melbourne. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • "Degrees Conferred, 1909–10". University of Melbourne Calendar 1911. p. 738.
  • "Dodd Sydney : SERN Captain". B2455 First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914–1920. National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  • "Personal". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 16 March 1915. p. 8. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  • "Empty Chairs – The Late Sydney Dodd". The Farmer & Settler. Sydney: National Library of Australia. 5 November 1926. p. 4. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  • "Sydney Dodd". Australian Veterinary Journal. Australian Veterinary Association. 2: 157–158. 1926. doi:10.1111/j.1751-0813.1926.tb05360.x.
  • "Report of the Senate of the University". Calendar of The University of Sydney for the Year 1927 (PDF). p. 836.
  • "Sydney Dodd Memorial". The Sydney Morning Herald. National Library of Australia. 8 December 1928. p. 11. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  • Turner, A. W. (1930). Black Disease (Infectious Necrotic Hepatitis) of Sheep in Australia. Bulletin no. 46. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Australia. p. 118. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  • Hitchner, S. B. (1949). "The Pathology of Infectious Sinusitis of Turkeys". Poultry Science. 28 (2): 106–118. doi:10.3382/ps.0280106.
  • Uilenberg, G.; Mpangala, C.; McGregor, W.; Callow, L. L. (1977). "Biological Differences between African Theileria Mutans (Theiler 1906) and two Benign Species of Theileria of Cattle in Australia and Britain". Australian Veterinary Journal. Australian Veterinary Association. 53 (6): 271–273. doi:10.1111/j.1751-0813.1977.tb00214.x.
  • Vallis, Rhyll (2011). A Veterinary Awakening: The History of Government Veterinarians in Australia. Dept. of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Australian Government. p. 39. ISBN 9781921575204. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  • "Dodd, Sydney (veterinary bacteriology)". S2A3 Biographical Database of Southern African Science. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  • "Historical Timeline 1910–2010". Faculty of Veterinary Science. University of Sydney. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

Further reading

  • Concise History of the Origin and Establishment of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute (PDF), Agricultural Research Council, South Africa, retrieved 16 March 2015
  • Animal Research Institute (Qld.); Kerr, Ruth; Queensland Department of Employment, Economic development and Innovation (2009), The Animal Research Institute : celebrating 100 years, Department of Employment, Economic development and Innovation, Queensland
  • The School at the Foot of the Hill (PDF), Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Sydney, retrieved 16 March 2015
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