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Introduction: The development of animal ethics and animal rights from the antiquity up to modern times is described. The relationship of humans to animals was primarily based on fear and animal cult, developed by the domestication to a partnership. The philosophers of the early modern age denied the animals the reason, what was disadvantageous to the position of the animals in the society and the behavior of humans to the animals. By the end of the 19th century the animal protection concept developed with numerous postulates for legal regulations. With the Swiss animal protection law, which came into force in 1981, most of the postulates could be realised. It is shown, how animal protection has developed since that time.

Introduction: The first animal disease act of Switzerland was released in 1872. Its revision in 1886 brought the basis for establishing a border veterinary inspection service. This service was first reporting to the federal Ministry of Agriculture; after 1914, the newly created Federal Veterinary Office became responsible for it. The border checks were first limited to live biungulate animals and horses; later on they were extended to meat and meat products and finally to venison and fishery products. At the beginning, part-time veterinarians with own practice were engaged. As the traffic increased, full time border veterinary inspectors joined the team; these were mainly active at the most important border posts (like Basel, St. Margrethen, Buchs, Chiasso, Geneva, more recently the international airports). The border veterinary inspection service, including the relevant instruction of the personnel, was (and is) financed with weight depending fees which included until 1966 a fee intended for financing the efforts to control livestocks epidemics.

A historical review of the terms health and sickness in human beings and animals. The terms health and sickness have changed from ancient history to the present day and have also been modified. The notions of what life really is, when it starts and when it ends, have contributed to these changes. Historically, health and sickness have generally been interpreted anthropocentrically in the course of time, rarely has the companionship between man and animal been taken into account. A closer look over the past three millennia as to the science of the dynamics of diseases, the humoral pathology and the solidistic pathology, leads to the conclusion that the terms sickness and health have only been understood in general, not in detail. In the last decades of the 19th century and up to the present day an essential change of the notion of sickness was initiated through cellular pathology by R. Virchow (1821-1902). Eventually, bacteriology, virology, molecular biology and gene technology have established new standards with regard to health and sickness and have paved the way to the present holistic medicine, which is based on science. Sickness is defined as a verifiable divergence from the norm of anatomical, physiological, immunological and psychic conditions of an organism and, accordingly, as a pathological form of being, implying a disturbance of homeostasis. The legal issues such as the federal laws on epidemic diseases of human beings and animals and on insurance are dealt with in conclusion.

A survey of the development of public control of animal diseases in Germany is made. The control of contagious diseases on the basis of confederation law has a history of more than hundred years. The knowledge and experience collected during this time are described.

The Veterinary Control Act of 1844 was the first to regulate in entirety the control of infectious diseases in animals and questions of sanitary inspection of animal food products in the Kingdom of Poland. The act listed explicit procedures regarding diagnostics, control and eradication of diseases as well as concerning animal food product inspection. The act required that animal owners become familiar with symptoms of animal diseases, their methods of control and that they prevent their spreading. The obligations of veterinarians, state physicians and administrative control bodies in the control of animal diseases were specified by the act. Besides the main text on the control of diseases and meat inspection the act also contains elements of food law, some norms concerning public law and order (e.g. requirements concerning dogs) and even some regulations on animal protection.