Who is the first veterinarian

In Mahabharata period BC , Nakula and Sahadeva, the two Pandava brothers were experts of horse and cattle husbandry, respectively.

Lord Krishna was an expert caretaker and conservator of cow husbandry. Gokul and Mathura were famous for excellent breeds of cows, high milk production, quality curd, butter, and other products. Buddha was a great protector of all kinds of animals and birds including game in ancient India as he preached lessons of non-violence to masses.

Graeco-Romans imported livestock from India after invasion by Alexander. These descriptions are available in Indika, a book authored by Megasthenes, the ambassador of Seleucus Nikator, king of Mecedonia in the court of Chandragupta Maurya. The great king Ashoka BC erected the first known veterinary hospitals of the world. He arranged cultivation of herbal medicines for men and animals in his empire and adjoining kingdoms. In a famous text, the Arthashastra science of economics composed by Kautilya, the guide and political advisor of emperor Chandragupta Maurya, a lot of information is available about different animal elephant, horse, and cow departments, grazing lands, rules of meat science, livestock products like skin and fur, and veterinary jurisprudence.

This knowledge flourished during the great Hindu kings of the Gupta period up to AD before Islamic followers invaded India. He was also among the first to demonstrate the importance of heating milk to kill bacteria.

For his contributions to human and animal health, Dr. Bang was awarded numerous honorary degrees. He also became an honorary member of the International Veterinary Congress in Little is known about the first women veterinarians. Mignon Nicholson is the first known female veterinary school graduate, no records of her practicing exist. Florence Kimball, who turned to nursing shortly after pursuing her veterinary degree.

Though there are still some unanswered questions about Dr. Elinor McGrath , we do know she graduated from veterinary school in She began a small-animal practice in Chicago, IL, shortly after. While this is a pretty typical route today, it was much more common for veterinarians to focus on farm animals in the early 20th century.

McGrath went on to marry a fellow veterinarian. Families were forced to leave their pets behind as they evacuated, so Dr. Lloyd-Jones purchased an estate to house all of them. His veterinary practice was incredibly successful at this time, even serving Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Lloyd-Jones focused more heavily on writing later in his life as his own health declined. He penned an autobiography as well as a sequel. Natural remedies were a big focus for Dr.

After noticing how animals would seek certain plants to heal themselves, he founded Denes Natural Pet Care to make high-quality foods and herbal products more available. We can thank Dr. Louis J. In , he ordered Bourgelat to create another veterinary school. This time it was located in Alfort, just outside Paris. Bourgelat established the standards for the two veterinary schools in and would continue to teach until he died Jan. The veterinary profession will be celebrating a major milestone this year—the th anniversary of the world's first veterinary school, which was founded in Lyon, France, in That was shortly followed by the Alfort veterinary school, near Paris, in , both at the initiative of Claude Bourgelat.

By setting up the world's first veterinary training institutions, Bourgelat helped create the veterinary profession as we now know it. Since then, scores of veterinarians have made substantial contributions to the world's knowledge of animal health and welfare as well as public health and biomedical research.

These individuals have been selected on the basis of their contributions to the field of veterinary medicine as well as the world at large. And they represent a wide range of nationalities and come from various backgrounds and time periods. These "legends" identified and developed cures for diseases, wrote best-selling books, transcended gender barriers, led nations, and founded educational institutions.

In telling their stories, JAVMA News hopes veterinarians and the public in general will have a greater appreciation for what the profession has done and will continue to do for society.

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Contact Contact us Media contacts. Site search. Pioneering a profession. By Malinda Larkin. Published on December 19, Legends in Veterinary Medicine What better way to celebrate a major milestone in the profession's history than with a look back at a few veterinarians who made substantial contributions, starting with the man who founded the first veterinary school.

Bourgelat may not have gained the global renown of his contemporaries Voltaire and Diderot; however, he proved just as influential in the realms of veterinary medicine, zoonotic disease, and public health.

This 18th century expert horseman contributed greatly to the knowledge of animal health, developed a style of horse riding that continues today, and, in what became his lasting legacy, founded the world's first veterinary school. But Bourgelat wasn't content with his reputation as an expert horseman. Bourgelat moved away from learning about how horses should be ridden to how they should be treated. He expressed an interest in pathology and anatomy, which he believed were subjects that had been heavily neglected.

He and Bourgelat became close in that time, and from then on, Bertin showed support for his friend. Cracking the books In , Dr. Beginning in , during major epizootics in France, Bourgelat taught the best students everything they needed to know in less than a year to send as many as possible to combat the prevailing cattle disease, rinderpest.

Soon after, "The plague was stayed and the health of stock restored, through the assistance rendered to agriculture by veterinary science and art," Krogmann wrote.