Vicco von Bülow (1930–2013)

Professor Dr vet. med. Vicco von Bülow passed away on February 11, 2013 in Berlin, Germany and we are in mourning for a highly respected colleague.

Curt Walter Vicco von Bülow was born on 9 July, 1930 in Königsberg, East Prussia. He grew up on the family property, Stuthenen farm, and attended primary school in his home city. At the early age of ten he had to leave his home and his parents' agricultural properties due to the events of World War II. After preliminary settlement of his family Vicco von Bülow attended, from 1941 to 1943, the Hermann Lietz School in Gebesee, close to Erfurt in Thuringia and later in the castle of Bieberstein near the city of Fulda in Hassia. He left school in 1949 having passed his final examinations and obtained the abitur (matura). For the next two years von Bülow learned agricultural practice on farms in Würtemberg and Westfalia.

From 1951 until 1956, von Bülow studied veterinary medicine at the School of Veterinary Medicine Hannover. For this, he was supported by scholarships of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen volkes” and by the aid programme for refugees. In 1956 he married Ursula von Cramon, with whom he had three children, two girls and a boy. After six months of practical work on a farm close to the city of Walsrode in northern Germany he received the licence (approbation) of a veterinarian.

In 1957 he obtained a position in the Federal Research Institute for Small Animals (poultry and rabbits) in Celle, near Hannover. His main duties consisted of diagnostic work on submitted chickens and engagements in the poultry health service. This position provided his first contacts with chickens and their transmissible diseases. Within the scope of a research grant provided by the Federal Research Agency (DFG) von Bülow initiated studies on avian leukosis and parasitic diseases of chickens in the institute and was able to write his doctoral thesis on avian intestinal helminths under the guidance of Dr Otfried Siegmann. He was promoted to Dr med. vet. in Hannover in 1957. His doctoral thesis on “Attempts to control the sludge that transmits liver flukes” received the highest accolade.

After two years in the research institute in Celle, he worked for six months as a field veterinarian on a farm in northern Peru before returning in 1960 to general veterinary practice in northern and western Germany.

Most important for his career as a research veterinarian was his entrance into the Federal Research Institute for Virus Diseases of Animals in Tübingen, located in south-west Germany. At the beginning of a 20 year period in this institute von Bülow obtained the in-depth training in general and basic virology, immunology and virological methods that formed the basis for his future studies on mammalian and avian viruses. His initial work focussed on evaluation of the efficacy of formol-inactivated vaccines against foot-and-mouth disease and modes of changes in virulence of this virus in cattle.

His work on avian diseases initially involved avian encephalomyelitis (AE), a picornaviral disease that was rather common at that time and not yet controlled by vaccination in Germany. During 1964–5 he published on physico-chemical properties, purification and on the unsolved question of preservation of AE virus suspensions of egg-adapted live virus vaccines. His studies on AE were followed by diagnostic and epidemiological work on avian infectious bronchitis (IB) of chickens and included IB virus growth in cell cultures, mitigation of virulence by serial passages in cell cultures and characterization and differentiation of upcoming variants of IB virus.

Undoubtedly his most important achievements are related to Marek's disease (MD) which, in its acute form characterised by multiple tumours, occurred in the late sixties in many chicken farms worldwide. To proceed and to gain more basic experience in the field of MD research, Dr von Bülow took sabbatical leave, accompanied by his wife and children, in the internationally renowned laboratories at the Houghton Poultry Research Station (HPRS) from June 1972 to September 1973. At the HPRS, he worked with various isolates of MDV and the herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) and was able to demonstrate, on the basis of immunofluorescence and agar gel precipitation (AGP) tests, - and in close cooperation with Professor Peter M. Biggs, Dr L.N. (Jim) Payne and others – that the MDV group consists of three serotypes. The AGP test was at that time a widely-used method to demonstrate the presence and differentiation of antigenic determinants of MD and HVT viruses.

In 1980, von Bülow moved from Tübingen to the Institute of Poultry Diseases at the Free University in Berlin where he was appointed as Professor for Poultry Diseases and Hygiene. Here, in a new academic environment with teaching obligations and research opportunities for post graduate veterinary students, his scientific work was partly re-focused on infectious bursal disease and chicken infectious anaemia (CIA) and their likely effects on cellular host responses, macrophage activity and development of the tumorous form of MD.

Within an academic-industry project (together with Dr Egon Vielitz) major studies on the epidemiology of CIA were completed. In addition, von Bülow worked on the characterization of the CIA virus and methods for virus assays and quantitative and qualitative determination within the scope of mass virus production for vaccines. Based on the developed methods, it was possible for the first time to determine the state of infection in SPF chicken flocks and to produce an attenuated live virus vaccine for chicken parent flocks. This vaccine is still widely used.

In 1981 von Bülow was the recipient of the Bart Rispens award for the best paper published in the high-ranking journal Avian Pathology in the preceding two years (von Bülow, 1980). Also, for many years Professor von Bülow translated the Abstracts of all the publications in Avian Pathology from English into German and over many years he was a willing and valuable peer reviewer of numerous manuscripts that were submitted to the journal. He carried out these duties quickly and assiduously.

The European Communities joint research programme on mechanisms of resistance to Marek's disease saw Dr von Bülow as an active and productive member of the group.

His scientific activities generated more that 80 publications, mostly in peer reviewed journals, many contributions to outstanding text books and numerous presentations during domestic and international conferences.

Being a practising protestant, Dr von Bülow was elected Elder (Ältester im Gemeindekirchenrat) of the church community in Berlin. He was elected an honorary knight of the Order of Johanniters (Ehrenritter des Johanniterorden) with (Ritterschlag) and Head of the Nobles' Union in Berlin and Brandenburg.

During all of his academic life, von Bülow was an excellent experimenter, who greatly enjoyed laboratory work and its valuable communication to the scientific community, students and field veterinarians. A large number of doctoral theses were completed under his guidance. His students appreciated his supervision and patience but also his generous support.

Professor von Bülow retired on September 30, 1995 since when he devoted his life together with his wife to the fine arts, especially music and literature but also European history.

We, the poultry specialists of the German Veterinary Society, the World Veterinary Poultry Association and the American Association of Avian Pathologists thank Professor von Bülow for his long lasting, invaluable contributions in research and academic teaching.

In conclusion, Dr von Bülow made over the many years of his scientific career eminent contributions to avian sciences, especially in virology, immunology and vaccinology. In him we have lost an outstanding researcher, colleague and friend. We will remember him as a highly reliable and co-operative colleague with a constantly enquiring mind.

Erhard F. Kaleta, Giessen

Hafez M. Hafez, Berlin

Egon Vielitz, Cuxhaven