Editorial

Just recently, we parted from a dear friend, Shlomo Dori who took his leave from us at the age of 86. Shlomo was a legend among the dairy cattle breeders and the veterinary medicine community in Israel. He belonged to the generation we call, ' The Giants', who founded from scratch the modern Israeli dairy cattle industry and guided it to international recognition. He was a devoted friend and enthusiastic collaborator of the veterinary community in both research and practice. In the Hebrew version of this issue, Prof. A. Shimshony describes in detail the man and his achievements. Shlomo's death is a big loss to our community.

The impact of veterinary medicine in public health has been growing tremendously in the last few decades, especially, as far as control over safe food production from farm animal sources is concerned. Dr. Reuven Katain, who recently celebrated his 82th birthday, is no doubt the initiator of modern food control in Israel. In this issue he presents a review on the integrated QC system for the food servicing industry in Israel, a project he was very much involved with in the last decade.

During the last few years Malignant Catarrhal Fever (MCF) in cattle has reemerged in Israel presenting some unique clinical and laboratory findings. A review concerning this topic and reflecting the recent Israeli experience, written by Drs Brenner and David from the Kimron Veterinary Institute is published in this issue.

The Israeli Association of Veterinary Microbiology and Immunology, founded a few years ago, is holding regularly annual scientific meetings. In this issue the reader is introduced to the abstracts of topics presented at its 3rd meeting (December 2004).

We would like to draw your attention to our website (www.isrvma.org) where you can participate at the end of each article by sharing remarks, discussions or questions. Your contribution is most welcome.

Zeev Trainin, Editor