Iginio Altara primo direttore generale dei servizi veterinari

Iginio Altara, first General Director of Veterinary Services, was born in Bitti (Nuoro) from a family of doctors, lawyers and farmers which are unlikely instilled in our passion to the biological disciplines applied which then led him to cross the extraordinary achievements. He went to study at Portici (Naples), and was awarded his degree cum laude in Agricultural Science; then he moved to Bologna, where he graduated in Veterinary Medicine. In 1922 he was named assistant in the Institute of Lanfranchi. In 1924, in France, he attended both the Laboratory of Parasitology of the Sorbonne, and the Experimental Station of Alfort. In 1925 he was named assistant of Sassari Zooprofilattico Station and in 1926 he moved to the Station of Rome. In 1926 he obtained a lectureship in Microbiology and Prophylaxis of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases of Animals. In 1927 he was appointed Director of the Zooprofilattico Station of Sardinia, and in 1929, he held the same office at the Zooprofilattico Station of Piemonte and Liguria. The scientific activities of Altara consisted in dealing many topics of pathology in different animal species. In 1949 he was appointed General Director of Veterinary Services at the A.C.I.S. which arose the Ministry of Health. The high regard of Altara in the international veterinary science led him to the presidency of the OIE that he held from 1952 to 1955. He died in Rome on October 19 1976.