The first veterinary school was founded in Lyon, France in 1761 by Claude Bourgelat. That’s when the profession of veterinary medicine officially began.
The school focused on studying the anatomy and diseases of sheep, horses and cattle.
They put in an effort to combat cattle deaths from a plague in France. Cattle plagues were common throughout history, but attempts to learn how to fight microorganisms had to wait until the invention of the microscope sometime in the 1590s.
The first vaccinations for cattle were developed in 1712 and used to eradicate a plague in Europe.