The discoverer: Aladár Aujeszky (Pest, 11 January 1869 – Budapest, 9 March 1933) was a medical doctor, veterinarian, lecturer in bacteriological diagnostics, professor, and director of the Institute of Bacteriology at the Royal Hungarian College of Veterinary Medicine (1907–1933). His name has been preserved in international scientific literature through the disease named after him. He was the first to describe the clinical picture of “pseudorabies” in 1902 and distinguished it from rabies. His books include: A baktériumok természetrajza (The Natural History of Bacteria) (1912) and Általános bakteriológia (General Bacteriology) (1924). (Source: Hungarian Veterinary Pantheon in Hungarian)
Other names: pseudorabies, pseudolyssa, Pseudowut
Description: ”I would like to draw attention below to an infectious disease that I have had the opportunity to observe on two occasions, but about which I have been unable to find any information in the literature. My discovery of this interesting disease – which appears to be unknown to experts and has not yet been described – was prompted by the examination of the brains of two animals suspected of having rabies. …
All attempts aimed at discovering the microorganism causing the infectious disease have been unsuccessful. It is indeed likely that the infectious agent consists of some living microbe; however, it has not been possible to culture or even observe it using the bacteriological techniques known today. … Thus, the causative agent of this disease also belongs to that group of infectious viruses whose microorganisms have so far neither been cultured nor observed (smallpox, rabies, scarlet fever, measles, foot-and-mouth disease, horsesickness, etc., etc.).
The described disease, therefore, differs sharply from rabies in certain characteristics; its virus is not identical to the infectious agent of rabies, although some of its features do resemble it. It also seems certain that it cannot be a very common disease, because otherwise we would already have known more about it. However, the fact that we can find traces of it here and there is best demonstrated by the fact that, over the course of a single year, the brains of two animals suspected of having rabies were sent to our institute for examination, and these animals had in fact died from the disease described here.”
(Source: Aujeszky Aladár: A veszettséggel összetéveszthető, oktanilag ismeretlen fertőző betegségről. Veterinarius, 1902. 25. 12. 387–396.)
“Aujeszky’s disease is caused by a herpesvirus and results in neurological symptoms and death in piglets and other species, while adult pigs have only mild respiratory symptoms or have no symptoms at all.”
(Source: World renowned achievements of Hungarian veterinary science. Collection of Veterinary History, temporary exhibition, 2011. Giants of microbiology and the Hungarian Royal State Institute of Bacteriology. https://univet.hu/konyvtar/wp-content/uploads/sites/17/2025/07/giants.pdf)
Year: 1902
Interesting: “Just now, as I was finishing this report, thanks to the kindness of Professor Marek, I had the opportunity to examine the carcass of a cat that had died in the department of internal medicine of the veterinary college, and through experimentation I determined that the cat had also fallen victim to the ailment described. As I have been informed, a rapidly fatal disease in cats accompanied by similar symptoms has already been observed on several occasions at the college,” –– writes Aladár Aujeszky in a footnote to his article.
The first account in German: Aujeszky, Aladar: Ueber eine neue Infektionskrankheit bei Haustieren. Centralblatt für Bakteriologie, Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten. Abt. 1. Originale, 1902. 32. 5. 353–357.
Source of the portrait: Magyar Állatorvosi Panteon
Source of the pathological image: Vetési Ferenc, Dobos-Kovács Mihály: Állatorvosi patológiai képes album = Colour atlas of veterinary pathology. Budapest : VET-Image Kft., 2006. image 609.
