The Starting Point of My Career

After my graduation from the College of Veterinary Medicine, U.P., in 1923, I was appointed instructor in the Zoology Department, College of Liberal Arts, U.P. for one semester; then as Assistant Veterinary in the erstwhile Bureau of Agriculture. My first field assignment was in Calumpit, covering Quinqua, now Plaridel and Pulilan, for the control of Rinderpost; then to San Miguel, Bulacan and later in the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian in Malolos. When the carabaos in Cagayan became infected with Blackleg, I was asked to proceed to Aparri, to put up a veterinary medical center in Barrio Caparaanan where animals were brought in for treatement. Blackleg is characterized by marked edematous swelling of the hind legs with pus and rotting muscle tissues inside so that holes had to be incised from top to bottom for irrigation with disinfecting solution placed on an elevated drum and rubber hose so that as the carabaos passed through the chute, they could be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

The rest of the field work was close surveillance on the progress of rinderpost, doing quarantine and vaccination works on the farmer’s carabao whenever there was any sign or danger of infection. This field work enabled me to serve and inspect practically all the provinces from Ilocos provinces and Cagayan Valley to down south as far as the Bicol provinces, and from Negros Occidental to Panay Island, using motorcycles with sidecars and horseback in places impossible by vehicles like the riverbeds and mountain trails in the Mountain Province. It is the most enjoyable work better than to be confined within the four walls in the Zoology class of the U.P. for I was able to see and deal with the animal raisers, barrio, municipal, and provincial officials. I cannot forget the hospitality of the barrio people where I had been in their preparations even fit for a VIP, and the dance with the beautiful barrio lass, the delicious “basing babae” and “tapoy” which could swoop you down to sleep if you take an overdose of that Ilocano delicacy. I had enjoyed this field service work from 1924 to 1930, covering a period of seven years to which I had vaccinated 300 to 500 carabaos in each vaccinating center in the Ilocos Provinces against Rinderpost with only one casualty due to Anaphylocis, a term hard to explain to the farmers. I could not swallow the delicious food “nilagang manok”, lechon, hard-boiled eggs prepared for us on that eventful day. Anaphylactic reaction could cause sudden death to an individual due to hypersusceptibility to protein substances and this is what happened to this carabao.

Probably when the people in the Central Office of the Bureau got tired of transferring me from province to province, I finally landed in the Veterinary Research, Laboratory at Pandacan, Manila for diagnostic works.