David Wood

Veterinary Surgeon Born: May 29, 1933; Died: January 26, 2015. DAVID WOOD, who has died aged 81, had a great attachment to animals and farming activities from an early age and spent a lifetime involved in animal health and husbandry as a veterinary practitioner, pig health expert, farmer and veterinary administrator.

As a boy he spent weekends and holidays working on Robert Wiseman’s Murray Farm in East Kilbride. On one occasion, when he was 14, he was awarded the Boys Brigade Gallantry Award for his conduct. The citation states: “On the night of 7th August, Robert Wiseman, farmer, East Kilbride was bringing in a newly calved heifer when he was attacked by the cow. Seriously injured, he was only enabled to crawl to safety by the prompt action of David Wood, who, with complete disregard for his own personal safety, attacked the cow with a stick and drove her off. This plucky action undoubtedly saved the farmer’s life.” That farmer founded the highly successful national group, Robert Wiseman Dairies.

David Reoch Wood, the youngest of three children of William and Beatrice Wood, was born in 1933 in a small cottage in Kittoch Street in the old village of East Kilbride. After early schooling in East Kilbride Public School, he won a bursary to attend Hamilton Academy where he was a member of the rugby first XV and sang in the school operas, before moving to the University of Glasgow Veterinary College where he graduated BVMS MRCVS in 1956.

His first veterinary appointment was in the wild and beautiful Yorkshire Dales in Thirsk where he was an assistant to the famous James Heriot. He then moved to Pocklington and Market Weighton and eventually became senior partner of Cook and Steele, which he built up to be one of the largest mixed animal practices in the East Riding of Yorkshire. In parallel, he and his brother James founded Prospect Pig Farmers Limited, a highly successful pig breeding and rearing virus-pneumonia free 200-pig unit, which incorporated the latest pig health and housing regimes.

In 1975 he moved back to Scotland and took a post as veterinary adviser, specialising in pig health and husbandry with the Ministry of Agriculture in Perth and was involved in the introduction of the then newly adopted Pig Health Scheme.

In the 1980s, the British Government negotiated on behalf of a UK genetics company with the Chinese Government for the purchase and transfer of a herd of Meishan pigs from China, their country of origin, to the UK. This was the first time the Chinese had allowed the export of a herd of Meishan pigs. Mr Wood, as a pig health specialist, was selected to join Professor Wilmet of the Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine and Dolly the Sheep fame, to go to China and vet and select a herd of 20 Meishan pigs. Although the Chinese pigs were fatter, they produced larger litters of 10-13 as opposed to the British average size of 6-8 and it was felt that by introducing them into the British herd significant improvements in productivity would ensue.

In 1986 Mr Wood assembled the herd in Hong Kong airport before accompanying them by plane back to Scotland. The experiment is still ongoing and a new breed of pigs using the Meishan strain has now been registered in the UK.

In the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak, he played an invaluable and vital role in assisting the farming community’s herd health and husbandry concerns and in maintaining the strict legal animal movement requirements necessary at the time of the outbreak. His skill in interpreting the rules and regulations of both the Ministry and DEFRA on all animal movements during the outbreak, played no small part in containing and eradicating the disease in Scotland.

Away from work, he enjoyed golf and fly-fishing, particularly on the River Tay which he knew well. He was also a great lover of classical music. It is fitting that his ashes were scattered at Kercock, a favourite fishing beat of his on the Tay. He died peacefully at home in Wolfhill and was cremated in Perth Crematorium. He is survived by his wife, Isobel, and his brother, numerous nephews and nieces and an extended family.