Dr. James Welch (ISU ’41) of
Clinton– WVMA President 1965
During my presidency
I became
President in 1965, succeeding Marion Szatalowicz, and was followed by Bob
Houser. During this period, things were running quite smoothly on the whole,
but at the same time there were a lot of things going on.
One thing
that was of particular interest to me was the annual meeting, which was always
held at the Hotel Schroeder in Milwaukee in January. It seemed that this was
usually the coldest weekend of the winter and because our cars would sit out in
the open for a couple of days, it resulted in people having more trouble
getting home than they did getting there. Those attending, because of their
busy schedule in practice, looked forward to this meeting as a much-needed
vacation. The drug companies had hospitality rooms with free liquor so the
temptation was to gather there and bypass the meetings. This situation was
already improving when I became president with less hospitality rooms
available, resulting in better attendance at the scheduled programs.
The 1965
summer meeting was held at the Wisconsin Dells and we tried a different type of
meeting; many different topics were introduced which made it pretty inclusive
for all types of practices. It was very well attended by 120 veterinarians.
During this
period, the WVMA newsletter was printed about every two months and was edited
and mostly written by Bill O'Rourke; Executive Board minutes were reported, as
they still are. The main difference is that now the President contributes to
each issue, whereas during my term, we only had to write one letter and that
was as we were leaving office.
Herein is a copy of the letter that I wrote:
Clinton, Wisconsin December 1, 1965
Wisconsin
veterinarians are in the midst of a rapidly changing agricultural picture. How
we meet this challenge will to a large degree determine the future of the
so-called general practitioner.
In the past,
we have had more business than we could adequately care for. Some of our
clients received the impression that we did not have the time to properly
diagnose and treat their animals; after a seemingly hasty diagnosis, we gave
the animal an injection of penicillin and were on our way in a short time. The
client decided that it looked so simple that he might as well get a syringe and
"miracle" drugs and do the job himself.
Today we are
finding farmers doing business like most other industries since the advent of
the production line. The smaller farms are being squeezed out just as the small
grocery stores were about thirty years ago. The trend is to get production at
its most economical level- where this will end, no one knows.
The question
is, where does the veterinarian fit into this new concept of agriculture? I am
of the opinion that the veterinarian not only fits into the picture, but has a
very essential and worthwhile place. We all know that an increased population
and concentration of animals brings with it an increase in disease problems.
Our job is to control and prevent disease so that these larger operations can
function - if the veterinary profession does not fulfill this need, someone
else will. Each veterinarian will have to work out his own method of meeting
this challenge.
Our state
and regional associations should be prepared to give assistance. Veterinarians
who have dealt successfully with vertical integration could give valuable
assistance. With choice of centrally located conferences, the same program
could be presented on two successive days so that in the case of partnerships
both partners would be able to reap the benefits.
This proposed
type of program is not completely new in Wisconsin. The 1964 Fall meeting of
the Central Wisconsin Veterinary Association was a good start. The Milwaukee
Association has seen the need for further education of a more specialized type
and has planned its programs accordingly.
We as individuals can help increase the effectiveness of
our educational program with constructive suggestions and active participation.
It has been an honor, as well as a challenge, to serve as your President. I
wish to extend my sincere best wishes to Dr. Houser for his tenure in office. *
Author’s
comments: The following statements were
part of Dr. James Welch’s interview.
Because of the historical significance of his remarks, I have offered
them at this time.
Brucellosis
In the early
thirties Dr. Mohlar of the Bureau of Animal Industry was working with Brucella
abortus bacteria. He had a tube of Brucella abortus organisms, live
bacteria, on his desk which he forgot about, and it became covered up with
papers for about six to eight weeks. When he cleaned off his desk he found this
tube and began to experiment with it to see if it was alive. He found out that
he could vaccinate cows that were free of brucellosis and that they would
become immune and wouldn't abort when infected, and that is how the vaccine was
developed.
In Wisconsin,
the earliest use of Brucella abortus was in the late thirties; the only
way it could be obtained was for someone to go to St. Louis where it was being
made and bootleg it into Wisconsin. It wasn't uncommon for whole herds to be
vaccinated illegally when an outbreak occurred and it stopped the spread of
brucellosis within the herd.
Prior to
development of the vaccine, when studying bacteriology under Dr. Merchant at
Iowa State, I dared to remark that a vaccine could probably be developed.
My reason being that in our herd at home we had an
outbreak and then there would be a period of six or seven years before it would
break out again. Almost all cows rebred would not abort a second time, although
they would react to the brucellosis test. I felt that I almost might get an
"F" for suggesting to Dr. Merchant that a vaccine for brucellosis
could be developed. I feel that the manner in which Wisconsin approached the
brucellosis-free state should be a matter of record, as it was so unique.
About 1948 the vaccination program was really taking off;
the state began ring-testing herds in 1949 or 1950 and also financed calfhood
vaccination. The herds in which positive ring tests occurred were all blood
tested, the reactors were identified but weren't forced to be shipped to
slaughter. This was an especially wise decision for the southern part of the
state because more than 50 percent of the herds tested positive, while the
State average was 20 percent. Some herds had as many as 40 percent positive -
however, some of the positives were the result of adult vaccination of entire
herds where an outbreak had been identified. The target date for shipping all
reactors was 1955. By vaccinating calves and farmers culling out known reactors
the number of ring-test positive was very low before 1955, less than five
percent, and when blood tested most of these herds had two or less cattle to
ship to slaughter. This saved both the farmers and the state a tremendous
amount of money.
My practice,
centered at Clinton, was only five miles from the Wisconsin/Illinois state line
and cattle were moved freely between the two states. I am sure that some of the
reactors ended up in Illinois. However, I was not aware of any new herds in
Illinois becoming infected at that time, because most of the cattle that were
shuffled were positive as the result of adult vaccination. Surprisingly, many
cattle vaccinated as adults were testing clean after three or four years.
In 1965,
the BAI (which later became the FDA) was trying to get Wisconsin to quit
vaccinating because of the possibility that the vaccination would result in a
few positive reactions when they were tested. Dr. Sam McNutt and I were
appointed to represent Wisconsin by attending the National BAI meeting in
Lansing, Michigan, in October to try to figure out how we could continue the
vaccinations in Wisconsin.
There had
been 17 outbreaks of brucellosis in Wisconsin in 1964 - 16 of which had been
traced to imported cattle. My argument was that if the cattle weren't
vaccinated what would happen if Wisconsin got a "hot dose" of
brucellosis and it started spreading - there wouldn't be any immune cattle and
we would be in terrible shape. The committee dealing with this question took my
recommendation and canceled the requirement that Wisconsin quit vaccinating.
I received a
letter of commendation from Don McDowell, the Director of the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture, but the commendation which meant the most to me came
from Dr. McNutt who had been on the faculty and working in research when I was
a student at Iowa State. He wrote me a letter complimenting me on what had been
accomplished. On July 14 (prior to the meeting in Lansing) the Wisconsin
Department of Agriculture had a big banquet to celebrate the state being
declared "Certified Brucellosis
Free," and if we could no longer vaccinate, this would really have been a
blow to the progress which had been made.
Also, it
should be noted that during the mid-sixties, we were approaching the final
stages of using live virus (either attenuated or regular live virus) vaccine
for hog cholera, and it was dwindling down so that we could use only BTV, etc.
This was a major forerunner of states becoming cholera-free and eventually the
elimination of it nationwide.
Author’s
comments: During this interview, Dr.
Welch told the following story to Dr. Frank Gentile, Dr. Quint Metzig and
myself. These were Dr. Welch’s
additional comments in his explanation of the meeting in Lansing,
Michigan. “I was involved in the experimental
use of Strain 19 in Wisconsin to halt the spread of Brucellosis in cattle. A five-state conference was held in Lansing,
Michigan and was attended by the Chief of the Bureau of Agricultural Industry
(BAI) from Washington, D.C. (it later became the FDA). During the heated discussions that followed
the report given by Dr. Sam McNutt and myself, the Chief of the BAI left the
meeting and went back to Washington, D.C.
We were told that about two weeks later, the chief either resigned or
was the fired from his post.” *
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