Importance and impact of veterinary virology in Germany

Summary

The causative agent of tobacco mosaic and of foot and mouth disease (FMD) were recognized in 1898 as “filterable” or “invisible” — and eventually termed “virus”. Four years later the viral aetiology of yellow fever was established, and the new discipline took off. Thus animal virology started with a veterinary problem, and Germany’s contribution during the following decades came mainly from the chairs of veterinary teaching and research establishments in Giessen, Munich and Hanover, the Riems Institute, and the Federal Research Institute for Animal Virus Diseases in Tübingen. From a superficial bibliometric analysis, a wide divergence in impact figures is noted, with excellent contributions in international virology journals and lesser papers in German veterinary journals. The publications in the observed time frame reveal a fascination by virion structure, physical characteristics and structure-function relationships with little work published in journals dedicated to immunology and pathogenesis.