“To reduce this danger:” Rinderpest vaccines and African assistants in a Gold Coast laboratory,1890–1964

Abstract

The imperial expansion of bacteriology at the turn of the twentieth century led to the creation of new laboratories in the colonial world. Although employed as subordinates to colonial veterinarians, veterinary assistants contributed to scientific knowledge production and the development of new techniques for vaccine production. African veterinary assistants in the Gold Coast reworked techniques in bacteriology to produce vaccines to counter the devastating effects of rinderpest. The first vaccines produced in 1930 used serum from young bulls, some of whom died during the production process. While veterinarians from the United Kingdom took credit for vaccine improvements in the colony, the African veterinary assistants performed the scientific work required to mitigate the number of animal deaths needed for vaccine production. When the veterinary department switched from cattle herds to rabbit colonies for vaccine production in 1951, the assistants reconfigured the laboratory to cater to rabbits and the production of a lapinized strain. While rinderpest itself presented the gravest danger to cattle in the colony, the assistants also recognized veterinary medicine and the use of a “living virus” as a threat to cattle. They developed rigorous scientific methods in the laboratory to protect animals from this threat. Their positioning as scientific practitioners during the colonial period prefigured their conception of veterinary medicine in the postcolonial context in which they protected Ghanaian cattle from animal diseases and new incoming vaccines. Decreases in funding after independence led to a “struggle for capacity” as the veterinary department sought to maintain its position as a scientific discipline in need of a fully functioning laboratory.