The beginning of veterinary radiology in Turkey and the historical development of this discipline in Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Abstract

Radiology, on which researches began at the end of the nineteenth century with the discovery of "x-rays", has become an increasingly important diagnosis and treatment method in human medicine. Developments in the field of radiology were closely followed in the Ottoman State and following the first experimental studies launched in 1896, the use of radiology progressively increased in human medicine. On the other hand, radiological researches underwent a slower development in the field of veterinary medicine due to several reasons, including the difficulty of the restraint of animals, in particular the absence of devices suitable for the size of large farm animals, and the excessive exposure of veterinarians to x-rays. Informative articles on veterinary radiological researches conducted in Turkey have been detected in various publications dating back to the late nineteenth century. However, veterinary radiology was first put into practice with the education reform movement of the newly founded Turkish Republic, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Higher Agricultural Institute. The pursuance of radiological research in the following years, after the subordination of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to Ankara University, as well as education, training and publication activities have all earned radiology a key position among other veterinary clinical disciplines. This study was aimed at contributing to the history of veterinary medicine and science by providing an assessment of the beginning of veterinary radiology in Turkey and the historical development of this discipline in Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.