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glands of the domestic fowl. After those   Bernard Matthews, whose entire flock   the Bledisloe Veterinary Award of the
        two years, Peter needed a job.      was affected, was too impatient to await   Royal Agricultural Society of England
        Ian Galloway, director of Pirbright,   a vaccine and chose to cull his entire   and the Central Veterinary Society’s
        offered him the opportunity to study   breeding flock and obtain his birds from   Victory Medal. An award he especially
        foot-and-mouth disease virus, but the   an outside source.              prized was the Jószef Marek Memorial
        offer letter never arrived! However,   In 1974, Peter was given the directorship   Medal presented to him in 1979 by the
        Professor Blakemore at Bristol offered   of Houghton Poultry Research Station,   veterinary university of Budapest.
        him a lectureship in veterinary clinical   but it was a difficult time with widespread  More recently, with the rebuilding
        pathology at Langford and Peter     funding cuts to science budgets.    programme at the Pirbright Institute, a
        accepted, moving to Langford in 1955.   The reduced funds resulted in the   new stand-alone poultry experimental
        During his research, by cannulating   amalgamation of the four major veterinary   facility has been named the ‘Biggs
        chicken lymphatics (his novel technique),   institutes – Houghton, Compton and   Building’ in recognition of his
        Peter was the first to show that, although   Pirbright and the Neuropathogenesis   contribution to avian science.
        chickens have no lymph nodes, they   Unit in Edinburgh – to form the Institute
        have ‘mural lymphatic nodules’ along the   for Animal Health, of which he became   Peter’s greatest pride was his marriage
        lymphatic walls.                    the founding director.              to Jan and their three children – Alison,
                                                                                Andrew and John. Alison, a trained
        In 1956, LN (Jim) Payne joined Peter’s   There was much political pressure to   occupational therapist, sadly died in
        research group at Bristol studying avian   reduce government funding of veterinary   2007. Andrew is a prominent cattle
        leukosis. They visited the Houghton   research, which Peter fought bravely.   veterinarian and John is a highly
        Poultry Research Station to obtain fertile   Fundamentally a research scientist, Peter   successful electronic engineer. It was
        eggs of different strains of chicken to   was relieved to retire in 1988. He then   a special moment for Peter in 2015
        explore the graft versus host reaction.   became president of the Institute of   when Andrew was also presented with
        By using the sex chromosome as a    Biology, a vice president of the BVA, a   the Dalrymple-Champneys award by
        marker, they were able to show that the   member of the council and committees   the BVA – only the second father and
        pathology of this reaction was due to   of the Royal Society, and a founding   son to have been recognised in this
        both donor and host cells, probably in   fellow and member of council of the   way since the award was introduced 88
        equal amounts. This novel research was   Academy of Medical Science. One of his   years earlier.
        published in Nature.                most enjoyable and rewarding activities   He is survived by Jan, Andrew and
        In 1959, the Agricultural Research   was membership of RVC council for 14   John, nine grandchildren and five great
        Council launched a programme on the   years, the last eight of which he spent as   grandchildren.
        ‘avian leukosis complex’. Peter was   its vice chairman.
        invited to lead the programme. Over   He has also left his mark on poultry   A humanist funeral service for Peter was
        the next 13 years, he oversaw the   research. He founded the World      held on 20 January 2022.
        development of specialised facilities at   Veterinary Poultry Association and
        Houghton for avian research.        established the leading avian research

        Peter and his team conducted detailed   journal, Avian Pathology.
        experiments to unravel avian leukosis.   A long series of honours attests to
        They made the critical discovery that the   the respect he commanded. He was
        avian leukosis complex comprised two   a fellow of the Institute of Biology, the
        different diseases, the leukoses caused   Royal College of Pathologists, the
        by a retrovirus and what he was later to   RCVS and the Royal Society. He was
        name Marek’s disease.               awarded a doctor of science degree by

        They established new methods for the   the University of London in 1975 and in
        transmission of Marek’s disease into   1976 was awarded honorary doctorates
        experimental chickens, characterised its   of veterinary medicine by the Ludwig-
        aetiological agent as a cell-associated   Maximilians-Universität, Munich and the
        herpesvirus and developed the first   University of Liège, Belgium. In 1982,
        effective vaccine against any neoplastic   he was appointed visiting professor of
        disease caused by a virus. This was truly   veterinary microbiology at the RVC.
        novel and had a considerable impact on   He received numerous awards,
        our understanding of cancer.        including the BOCM Poultry Science
        A further discovery was that turkeys   Award, the JT Edwards Memorial
        could suffer from an oncogenic      Medal of the RCVS, the Brian
        condition, often fatal, which Peter   Hanson Memorial Award of the British
        named lymphoproliferative disease   Veterinary Poultry Association and
        (LPD); this proved to be caused by   the Wooldridge Memorial Medal and
        a C-type retrovirus. Turkey producer   the Dalrymple-Champneys Cup and
                                            Medal of the BVA. Peter also received
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