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a result of research in many countries, is recognised as a major cause of our inability
to improve livestock in the tropics in view of its devastation effects on introduced
breeds and their progeny. My main reason for mentioning this disease, is to bring
to your attention the influence that Professor Vanbreuseghem has had in the
veterinary field encouraging veterinarians and mycologists alike, to look at animal
mycoses as parallels to human infection in both pathogenesis and in epidemiology.
I cannot think of any other medical man other than Sabouraud himself, who has
acted in such an influential way ; my digression is purely out of admiration.
In talking about «Aerobiology and Allergy» I should perhaps say that it is new
ground for us both and as big a subject to develop as medical and veterinary
mycology has proved since the opening up of this subject by the late and lamented
Chester Emmons and Norman Conant. I hope I can point out that we have a very
long way to go before we have a store of knowledge comparable to what one might
term «terrabiology» with its data-bank great enough in the natural history of
ringworm fungi, for instance, to give us so sophisticated a symposium on their
mating habits as was eloquently documented under Professor Vanbreuseghem and
Doctor de Vroey in 1983.
The air is something that we all have to breathe but considering this, it has hardly
received the attention as to its quality that a staple of life deserves ; food is subject
to all manner of regulations, water is too, to ensure its purity, but air is only
considered polluted by man-made pollutants - through fires, motor cars and
industry which are shown medically and politically to impair health. Why is it then
that biological pollutants hazardous to health have been virtually ignored until very
recently ? - perhaps the answer lies in the old adage «what the eye does not see the
heart does not grieve over». What we really need to do is to look at great detail into
what is exactly in the air : its nature and complexity ; how much there is of it ; when
and where it is there ; and what is its medical and veterinary significance. I leave the
plant pathological aspects to the later paper today by Professor Semal.
There are, in aerobiology, some unfortunate fundamental conflicts, mostly based
on a lack of understanding. One is that between the medical and non-medical
investigator, coming from opposite directions and often failing to meet on common
ground. Plant pathologists rightly dominate airborne disease forecasting with their
intimate knowledge of the movement of airborne spores between countries and
continents ; pollen analysts look after the hay-fever aspects, whilst the physician
deals with the domestic (indoor) allergies. Moreover, there is also conflict in allergy
itself between the respiratory allergist - basing his diagnostic techniques on those
devised by the scientific investigations of prof. Jack Pepys and his immunologist
colleague, Dr. Joan Longbottom, from the 1960s at the Cardiothoracic Institute at
the brompton Hospital, London, and the alimentary allergist working until recently,
purely on the trial and error of dietary exclusion.
Those who study aerobiology are also divided by their interest in «viable»
(infective) particles and «non-viable» (non-infective) ones, with little understanding