Queensland Stock Institute
27°27′36″S 153°00′57″E / 27.46°S 153.0157°E / -27.46; 153.0157
The Queensland Stock Institute was a government scientific facility in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, for the research and prevention of disease in agricultural animals relevant to Queensland. Established in 1893, it was the first research institution in Queensland dedicated to the investigation of disease.[2] In 1900, it was renamed the Bacteriological Institute when activities were officially extended to include human pathology. The institute ceased as a facility for livestock disease in 1910 when animal work was transferred to Yeerongpilly. Laboratory work relating to human disease remained at the purpose-built facility under the control of the health department until 1918.[3]
Origins
Pleuropneumonia
Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), a respiratory disease that affects cattle, led to the first livestock science in Queensland. Louis Willems’ tail inoculation work in Belgium was known in Australia prior to 1858, when the first diagnosed outbreak occurred in Victoria.[4][5] Patrick Robertson Gordon, then Queensland's Chief Inspector of Stock and an advocate of inoculation, supported a proposal by graziers in 1887 for "establishing a laboratory for the cultivation of the contagium [sic] of pleuro-pneumonia for the inoculation of cattle".[6][7]
Pasteur Mission
Expertise for a laboratory came the following year when Louis Pasteur, responding to a notice for the extermination of rabbits in New South Wales,[8] sent a mission that included the French scientists Adrien Loir and Louis Germont.[9] While in Australia, Loir and Germont were engaged by the Queensland Government to research the origin of pleuropneumonia and its preventive inoculation, setting up a temporary laboratory at the old Immigration Barracks (Brisbane central business district) in conjunction with the (sheep) quarantine grounds at Indooroopilly for experimental animals.[10] The supervisory commission viewed the results as promising and recommended establishing a permanent institution and laboratory for all diseases of stock, with suitable buildings and a scientist.[11]
Also in 1888, additional interest in "scientific inquiry" emerged when a deputation of graziers asked the Colonial Secretary to appoint a board to investigate mange in stock.[12] In 1892 there was further petition for a local institute by the newly formed Queensland Stockbreeders and Graziers' Association, with reference to seeking the services of Adrien Loir.[13]
Establishment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d0/19th_century_building%2C_Turbot_Street%2C_Brisbane%2C_Queensland_circa_1953.jpg/220px-19th_century_building%2C_Turbot_Street%2C_Brisbane%2C_Queensland_circa_1953.jpg)
In November 1893 it was reported that the Colonial Secretary, Horace Tozer, had "decided to establish a Stock Institute in Brisbane for pathological and bacteriological purposes", and that Charles Joseph Pound, who had conducted a microscopy class in Brisbane, was preferred as scientist to take charge (Adrien Loir being unavailable).[14] C. J. Pound FRMS had been principal assistant to Edgar Crookshank at Britain's first bacteriology laboratory, King's College London, and briefly studied vaccines at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.[15] Establishment and maintenance costs were paid out of the Brands and Sheep Fund and a building in Turbot Street (Brisbane central business district) was leased for the institute.[16]
Tick Fever
Pound was commissioned by the Government in 1894 to investigate redwater cattle disease in the Gulf Country of Northern Australia. He reported parasites transmitted by ticks as the cause (see tick fever: babesiosis, anaplasmosis), which was subsequently confirmed by James Sidney Hunt.[17] A system of preventive inoculation was developed following Pound's experiments with blood from animals surviving tick fever, notably the Mundoolun experiments.[18]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/C._J._Pound%2C_Government_Bacteriologist%2C_Queensland%2C_ca_1897.jpg/220px-C._J._Pound%2C_Government_Bacteriologist%2C_Queensland%2C_ca_1897.jpg)
By 1895 the institute was outgrowing its Turbot Street premises; work had expanded beyond pleuropneumonia to tuberculosis, redwater, tetanus, and as time permitted, leprosy. The laboratory featured bacteria culturing apparatus, and histopathology preparation using paraffin. The institute's "museum" included specimens that showed advanced bovine tuberculosis (communicable to humans and a risk before milk pasteurisation), collected from apparently healthy cattle which supported Pound in urging for the establishment of public abattoirs and inspection of carcasses.[19]
Tuberculin
The institute claimed to be the first in the Southern Hemisphere to produce standardised tuberculin on a large scale for testing tuberculosis in cattle. In 1898 Pound described the method developed at the institute for culturing the tubercle bacillus, and then purifying and standardising the extracted tuberculin. Refinements in bacteria growing conditions, filtering out contaminants, and the use of live animals to standardise each batch were seen as crucial in providing a reliable source for the tuberculin test.[20]
Bacteriological Institute
Normanby Hill
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Queensland_Stock_Institute%2C_Normanby%2C_Brisbane_-_Floor_Plans_1898_redraw.pdf/page1-220px-Queensland_Stock_Institute%2C_Normanby%2C_Brisbane_-_Floor_Plans_1898_redraw.pdf.jpg)
Plans were prepared in 1898 for new buildings to better accommodate the institute, including provision for livestock and small animals. The new site, about 6 acres (2.4 ha), was adjacent to the Brisbane Grammar School on College Road (known then as Normanby Hill, now part of Spring Hill).[21] Pound was reported as having "regard to the plans of the Pasteur Institute" (Paris) in his influence on the design of the new premises.[22]
In 1900 the name of the institution was altered to the Bacteriological Institute, with control moved from the agricultural department to the Home Secretary's department. Diagnostic work on human diseases by the institute was approved to the Board of Health. This included specimen examination for typhoid, diphtheria, and tuberculosis, diagnosis by bacteriology, and microscopy for tumours.[23] Pound was appointed Government Bacteriologist and his staff consisted of three assistants.[24]
Plague
Following the first reported cases of plague in Australia at Sydney in January 1900, Pound was asked to examine rats in Brisbane. In March 1900 Pound found plague bacilli in a dead rat near a wharf used by ships arriving from Sydney. The first human cases in Queensland were diagnosed later that year, and plague examinations became a major part of the institute's work until 1909.[25]
The extent of work occupying the Bacteriological Institute is detailed in the Public Health Commissioner's annual reports. For 1905–1906, Pound stated that the institute had received a total of 17,062 specimens (animal and human combined). Specimens that returned positive for disease included: plague 49 (rat 38, human 11), tuberculosis 165 (cattle 2, human 163), typhoid 194, diphtheria 65, and leprosy 17. Unique specimens from medical operations were preserved for the institute's museum using the "formalin-glycerine process". Inoculum for pleuropneumonia was still being supplied to cattle owners in Queensland and other states, "guaranteed ... free from tuberculosis, actinomycosis, and other animal diseases". The institute also tested water and food. Of the 30 water samples examined for bacteria that year, Pound recorded that half were found to contain "coli bacilli" (an indicator of faecal contamination), 3 of which were also found to contain typhoid bacilli. An investigation of specimens from dengue fever patients was summarised with Pound noting that, of the microorganisms isolated, one microscopically distinct bacillus found common to 11 cases failed to prove as the "sole exciting cause" (now known to be viral).[26]
Livestock refocus
A cattle tick conference in May 1907, convened by the agricultural department, approved the motion "that a bacteriologist be attached to the Department of Agriculture and Stock to investigate diseases in stock" with mention of regaining the services of Pound.[27] It was reported the government decided that while Pound was to continue supervising the institute's work on plague outbreaks and other human pathology, his attention should again be directed to livestock: tick fever, pleuropneumonia, lumpy jaw, swine fever, swamp cancer, sheep parasites, and poultry diseases.[28] As a result, in August 1907 supervision and control of the institute were returned to the agricultural department.[29]
Division
The agricultural sector sought additional research effort. In 1908 Sydney Dodd, then Principal Veterinary Surgeon and Bacteriologist in the agricultural department, asked the Government to obtain an experimental farm. Dodd's proposal included experiments for redwater disease (tick fever)—of increasing concern for Central Queensland, an "artificial virus" for pleuropneumonia inoculation, and plants toxic to livestock.[30] This was realised in 1909 with the establishment of the Stock Experiment Station at Yeerongpilly (later to become the Animal Research Institute).
Discussions between the medical profession and the government occurred following the transfer of the institute back to the agricultural department, an indication of the growing recognition of the pathology sciences. When the Queensland branch of the British Medical Association requested a dedicated laboratory in 1910, the Government responded by dividing the human and livestock work into separate institutions. The institute was renamed the Laboratory of Microbiology and Pathology, with John J. D. Harris appointed as medical director and control transferred to the health department. Pound and the livestock work of the institute were reassigned to the Yeerongpilly facility.[3]
See also
- Animal Research Institute, Yeerongpilly
- Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
- Queensland Institute of Medical Research
Notes
- ^ Queensland Government (1893), p. 906.
- ^ Angus, Cannon & Adlard (2007), p. 4.
- ^ a b Patrick (1987), p. 140.
- ^ Moreton Bay Courier (1852), p. 4.
- ^ The Argus (1859), p. 5.
- ^ Newton, Norris & CSIRO (2000), p. 112.
- ^ Queenslander (1887), p. 968.
- ^ New South Wales Government (1887), p. 4.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1888a), p. 5.
- ^ Queenslander (1888), p. 958.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1889), p. 6.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1888b), p. 5.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1892), p. 4.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1893), p. 4.
- ^ Angus (n.d.).
- ^ Queenslander (1893), p. 1134.
- ^ Sprent (1986), p. S9.
- ^ Alcazar (1900), Biographical Sketches, p.105.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1895), p. 6.
- ^ Pound (1898), pp. 40–44.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1898), p. 4.
- ^ Queenslander (1900), p. 313.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1900), p. 4.
- ^ Patrick (1987), p. 139.
- ^ Patrick (1987), pp. 225, 231.
- ^ Pound (1906), appendix B.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1907a), p. 6.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1907b), p. 5.
- ^ Queensland Government (1907), p. 44.
- ^ Brisbane Courier (1908), p. 2.
References
- "Agricultural and Pastoral.", The Queenslander, National Library of Australia, p. 1134, 9 December 1893, ISSN 1836-8190, retrieved 11 July 2012
- Angus, B. M. (n.d.) [First published in hardcopy 2005], "Pound, Charles Joseph (1866–1946)", Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 11 July 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: year (link)
- Angus, B. M.; Cannon, L. R. G. & Adlard, R. D. (2007), "Parasitology and the Queensland Museum, with biographical notes on collectors." (PDF), Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 53, Brisbane: Queensland Museum, ISSN 0079-8835, retrieved 27 June 2012
- "The Cattle Disease—Important Discovery", The Moreton Bay Courier, p. 4, 18 December 1852, ISSN 1833-556X, retrieved 10 July 2012
- "The Cattle Disease.", The Argus, National Library of Australia, p. 5, 17 September 1859, ISSN 1833-9719, retrieved 10 July 2012
- "Diseases in Stock.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 5, 10 July 1907, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 27 August 2012
- "The Mange Disease.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 5, 13 March 1888, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 11 July 2012
- New South Wales Government (25 November 1887), "Avis divers – Nouvelle-Galles du Sud – Destruction des lapins" [Miscellaneous Notices – New South Wales – Destruction of rabbits], Le Temps (Paris 1861-1942) (in French), Bibliothèque nationale de France, p. 4, ISSN 1150-1073, No. 970, retrieved 23 July 2012
- Newton, L. G.; Norris, R. & CSIRO (2000), Clearing a continent: the eradication of bovine pleuropneumonia from Australia, Melbourne: CSIRO, ISBN 978-0-643-06562-8, retrieved 24 July 2012
- "Pasteur's Representatives and the Cultivation of Pleuro-Virus.", The Queenslander, National Library of Australia, p. 958, 24 November 1888, ISSN 1836-8190, retrieved 27 July 2012
- Patrick, R. (1987), A history of health and medicine in Queensland 1824 to 1960 (link to large PDF), St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, ISBN 0702220787, retrieved 24 August 2012
- "Pleuro-pneumonia in Cattle.", The Queenslander, National Library of Australia, p. 968, 18 June 1887, ISSN 1836-8190, retrieved 27 July 2012
- "Pleuro-pneumonia. – Report of the Commission.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 6, 6 April 1889, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 23 July 2012
- Pound, C. J. (1898), "Tuberculin, its History, Preparation and Use." (link to PDF), Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 14, Royal Society of Queensland (published 1899): 39–53, doi:10.5962/p.351301, ISSN 0080-469X, S2CID 257143592, retrieved 8 August 2012
- Pound, C. J. (1906), "Report of the Government Bacteriologist", Annual Report of the Commissioner of Public Health 1905-1906, Office of the Commissioner of Public Health, Queensland, Appendix B, ISSN 0810-1639 – via Queensland State Archives Item ID 903032, Batch file, agricultural
- Queensland, 1900. A narrative of her past, together with biographies of her leading men. (link to large PDF), compiled by Alcazar Press, Brisbane: W. H. Wendt, 1900, retrieved 28 August 2012
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: others (link)
- Queensland Government (2 December 1893), "Stock Institute (to be Established, and Director Appointed)", Queensland Government Gazette, vol. LX, no. 93, p. 906, ISSN 0155-9370
- Queensland Government (10 August 1907), "Bacteriological Institute", Queensland Government Gazette, vol. LXXXIX, no. 29, p. 44, ISSN 0155-9370
- "Rabbit Extermination. – Arrival of M. Pasteur's Nephew.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 5, 30 March 1888, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 23 July 2012
- "Rural Interests. Expert at Rockhampton. Proposed Experimental Farm.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 2, 4 August 1908, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 29 August 2012
- Sprent, J. F. A. (July 1986), "Pioneers of Australian Parasitology 2. C.J. Pound and Colleagues" (PDF), Parasitology Today, Australian Supplement, 2 (7), New York: Elsevier Science: S9, doi:10.1016/0169-4758(86)90201-2, ISSN 0169-4758, retrieved 7 August 2012
- "The Stock Institute. Inspection by the Advisory Committee.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 6, 30 May 1895, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 4 August 2012
- "The Stock Institute.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 4, 21 September 1898, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 6 July 2012
- "The Stock Institute.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 4, 1 February 1900, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 6 July 2012
- "The Stock Institute. The New Building.", The Queenslander, National Library of Australia, p. 313, 17 February 1900, ISSN 1836-8190, retrieved 30 June 2012
- "The Tick Conference.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 6, 8 May 1907, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 24 September 2012
- "To-day.—November 17.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 4, 17 November 1893, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 11 July 2012
- "To-morrow.—December 4.", The Brisbane Courier, National Library of Australia, p. 4, 3 December 1892, ISSN 1833-5551, retrieved 11 July 2012
Further reading
- Fenner, Frank, ed. (1990), History of microbiology in Australia, Canberra: Brolga Press for Australian Society for Microbiology, ISBN 0959493042
- Hunt, J. S.; Collins, W.; Wynne, E. R. (1896), Report on tick fever : also report of investigations at Hughenden on Texas or tick fever, Brisbane: Edmund Gregory, Government Printer, OCLC 476342745
- Laws, L. (1997), Mylrea, P. J. (ed.), "Queensland Government Veterinary Laboratory Services" (PDF), Australian Veterinary History Record, no. 29, Australian Veterinary History Society (published November 2000), pp. 14–26, ISSN 1445-579X, retrieved 31 May 2012
- Loir, A. (1892), La microbiologie en Australie : etudes d'hygiene & de pathologie comparee poursuivies a l'Institut Pasteur de Sydney [Microbiology in Australia: studies of comparative pathology & hygiene – Pasteur Institute Sydney] (link to PDF) (in French), Paris: G. Steinheil, OCLC 14774729, retrieved 24 July 2012 – via Electronic version: National Library of Australia
- Puls, M., ed. (April 2006), "A microbial history of Australia" (PDF), Livestock Horizons, vol. 2, no. 2, St. Lucia, Queensland: CSIRO Livestock Industries, ISSN 1832-3677, retrieved 25 October 2012
- "Brisbane Grammar School (entry 600124)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry