Oorsig/Review
SOME LESSONS LEARNED OVER
FIVE DECADES OF RESEARCH
Gareth Bath, Emeritus Professor
Faculty of Veterinary Science
University of Pretoria
Some people are suited to research, but others are not, and the sooner we establish
our category the better. For success in research we all need some luck at the outset:
good mentors, an enabling environment and some challenging problems – I was
lucky enough to find all of these at Grootfontein in the Eastern Cape in 1971.
What have I learnt since then?
Always do a thorough literature search!
We suspected that the problem of uroliths
(bladder stones) in show rams was related
to nutrition, mainly excess phosphorus – but
nothing was known officially in South Africa. I did
the investigations and could see a PhD beckoning
until I went to the library and found that virtually
everything had already been researched and
published, mainly in the American Journal
of Animal Science. However, all was not lost
and an 18-page Memorandum based on my
investigations and this literature was sent to the
Registrar, Act 36 of 1947, showing that current
Regulations were killing sheep. Forcing revision
of the regulations - a cheeky start to my research
career!
Fig 2 Phytobezoars in the abomasum of goats – interesting but
not of much economic value (Image provided by Dr Gareth Bath)
Similarly, at the same time, the mystery of the
cause of Enzootic Icterus in sheep could be
solved by careful analysis of previous work and
appropriate follow-up investigations, proving it to
be a form of chronic copper poisoning caused by
a combination of degraded veld and high-copper
doleritic soils. This led, decades later, to my being
described as the ‘father of veterinary geology’!
Concentrate on problems of high
economic importance!
Fig 1. Phosphate bladder stones killed many rams and wethers
(Image provided by Dr Gareth Bath)
18
The problems with phytobozoars (plant
concretions) in the abomasum of goats and sheep
was intriguing and totally un-researched in the
70s and it was very satisfying to find the answers
to its causes and development, but its occurrence
was of such a restricted extent that this research
has had little impact. In contrast, proving beyond
all possible doubt that the cause of Geeldikkop in
sheep was the eating of wilted Tribulus terrestris