The Italian veterinarians contribute to the development of the veterinary schools in South America in early 19th century

The historical period between late nineteenth century and the first decades of ’900 was characterized by a flow of veterinarians and agronomists who decided, either by choice or by necessity, to move from Europe to other continents. Sometimes it were the governments themselves who asked the veterinary schools of the old continent to recruit teaching staff who could be able to start ex novo vet schools or strengthen the existing ones, or who could be employed at field level for improving livestock production of those countries. One of the most important veterinarians was Domenico Giovine, who, in 1927, was invited by the Colombian government with the task to re-open the Escuela Nacional de Veterinaria in Bogota. Giovine re-defined the educational curriculum of the school, and was able to link teaching to research. He served as head of the school until 1931, and was founder-editor of the Revista de Medicina Veterinaria. In 1902, Silvio Bonansea reached the United States of Mexico where he worked on diseases of grazing cattle and he was deputy director of the Commission for Agricultural Parasitology. Between 1904 and 1905, Salvatore Baldassarre taught in the new national high school of Agriculture and Veterinary in Buenos Aires. During that period, he had the opportunity to gather extensive information on livestock of Argentina. He took interest in cattle, sheep, horses and pigs breeding and in related industries. His observations allowed him to write the book “La Zootecnia nella Repubblica Argentina”. In addition to promoting teaching, Baldassarre had the merit of making known to the world the characteristics of Argentinian cattle, giving a great boost to the international trade. When Baldassarre come back to Italy, he was replaced by Gaetano Martinoli who stayed in Buenos Aires until his retirement in 1937. In early ’900, Giuseppe Torreggiani moved from Argentina, where he was emigrated, to Bolivia, called by the local government, and he was named national veterinary and charged of the direction of the Institute of Agriculture and Veterinary. In 1920, it was Paolo Croveri, veterinarian bacteriologist and parasitologist who was called to Buenos Aires in order to run a serotherapic institute; from 1922 to 1926, thanks to his research skills, he was appointed head of the laboratory in the medical faculty of Buenos Aires, with the task of teaching laboratory techniques applied to the clinic. In early 1909, Luigi Maccagno was called to Lima (Peru) where he was in-charged to set up the experimental station for animal production, which originated from the school of Agriculture. He stayed in Peru for a long period as teacher of Hygiene and Animal Production at the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura y Veterinaria, in Lima. A few months later, Maccagno was joined by Edmondo Marino Tabusso, lecturer from Turin Veterinary School, who became professor of Microbiology and Animal Pathology at the same School, and later he moved to the School of Medicine where he taught Human physiology.