Hsiang-pih Hu

  • Born: 1913 (China)
  • Died: 2001
  • Inducted: 2013
Hsiang-pih Hu was born in Shanghai, China. He received his DVM in 1934 from the Central University, Nanjing, China. He studied for his MRCVS at the Royal Dick Veterinary College, Edinburgh, UK from 1937-1941. He then returned to China and worked in several universities. At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, he went to Harbin and worked in the Northeast Agricultural College, and later was appointed deputy-director of Harbin Veterinary Institute, Chinese Academy of Agriculture, until 1979. During this period, he led research on horse and pig infectious diseases and had about 80 publications in Chinese. In 1979, he moved from Harbin to the Centre for Literature and Information, Chinese Academy of Agriculture, in Beijing.

In the mid 1970s, an intensive chicken industry started to develop in China. However, knowledge of chicken diseases was very limited, and when Marek’s disease (MD) spread and caused major losses, many chicken farmers did not know what it was, or how to control it. Prof Hu made the first diagnosis of MD in China, and launched and led a national program against MD. He trained many young scientists to help chicken farmers control MD. Also, he helped several Chinese vaccine factories to develop production technologies for lyophilized HVT vaccine. His efforts played a vital role in the successful control of MD in China. He later encouraged international vaccine manufacturers and breeders to set up in China, thereby assisting the rapid expansion of the Chinese poultry industry.

He worked on avian diseases for the rest of his life, and translated the textbook “Diseases of Poultry” into Chinese in the early 1980s.

In 1982, Prof Hu founded the Chinese Association of Avian Pathologists (CAAP). He was elected as lifetime honorary president. He helped the CAAP become affiliated with the WVPA and was the corresponding secretary of the Chinese branch of the WVPA until 1999.

Prof. Hu was an optimist with a good sense of humour. He loved dancing and was a good dancer. He was a genuinely honest friend and respected teacher of the younger generation of scientists. He was suvived by his son Qihui Hu and daughters Qilan Hu and Qibing Hu.

WVPA thanks Zhizhong Cui for compiling this profile.

< back to honours list