Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine

CONFERENCE: 'SCIENCE, DISEASE AND LIVESTOCK ECONOMIES'

VENUE: ST ANTONY'S COLLEGE, OXFORD, UK - 23 - 25 JUNE 2005

Organised by Karen Brown and Dan Gilfoyle
Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, Oxford
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The idea for this conference was born out of a post-doctoral project, sponsored by the Wellcome Trust, which explores the history of veterinary science at the Onderstepoort laboratories in South Africa. South African veterinary science was largely state funded and primarily concerned with the control of disease amongst herds, rather than the treatment of individual animals. Given the economic and social importance of the subject, our comparative reading suggests that veterinary science is underrepresented in both the medical and agricultural historiographies. The aim of this conference is to start to redress this gap in the literature by exploring the inter-relationship between livestock economies, disease, science and the environment.

Domesticated animals have been central to many rural economies and continue to be so, especially in many parts of the developing world. Disease has had significant impacts on pastoralism, livestock populations and species distribution. The cost of disease control is still an important economic and political issue as the recent foot and mouth outbreak in Britain demonstrated. Pastoralists and commercial farmers have long sought ways of overcoming environmental disadvantages and devised different coping mechanisms to sustain their flocks and herds. With the expansion of biomedical sciences in the 19th and 20th centuries and the concurrent evolution of bureaucracies in many parts of the world, control of livestock economies has to varying degrees shifted from the concern of individuals and communities to a specific function of the state. Western biomedicine has both challenged and become partly integrated with traditional systems of animal care. In Africa there was strong hostility towards state imposed veterinary regulations in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Broader ecological factors such as the presence of poisonous plants, grassland deterioration and water shortages have at times played a key role in livestock management and generated a plethora of adaptation strategies and scientific responses.

We have received a wide range of papers that deal with themes such as:
- the impact of enzootic and epizootic diseases
- entomological frontiers
- biomedical sciences and veterinary applications
- traditional medicine and livestock management
- the relationship between wildlife and domestic animals
- poisonous plants and grassland management
- species adaptability and selective breeding
- the development of veterinary bureaucracies and their context
- the role of the state in regulating livestock economies

If you are interested in attending please e-mail Karen Brown - karen.brown@wuhmo.ox.ac.uk - as soon as possible as spaces are limited. There is no formal registration fee, but £10 will be collected on arrival to cover tea, coffee etc.

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