A highly lethal viral disease of cattle and buffalo that caused some of the most devastating livestock epidemics in recorded history, including a late nineteenth century African pandemic that killed the great majority of cattle across the continent and contributed to widespread famine. A decades long international vaccination campaign led to rinderpest being declared eradicated in 2011, the first animal disease and only the second disease overall, after smallpox, ever eliminated worldwide.
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Cattle, Livestock Rinderpest ('cattle plague'), eradicated in 2011, was historically the most feared viral disease of cattle.
The organization that became the World Organisation for Animal Health was founded in 1924, prompted by a 1920 rinderpest outbreak in Belgium traced to cattle imported through Antwerp, which showed governments the need for an international animal disease control body.
Sources
1. Rinderpest (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOpening definition paragraph
Rinderpest was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, buffalo, bison, antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthogs. The disease was characterized by fever, oral erosions, diarrhea, lymphoid necrosis, and high mortality. Death rates during outbreaks were usually extremely high, approaching 100% in immunologically naïve populations.
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A highly lethal viral disease of cattle and buffalo that caused some of the most devastating livestock epidemics in recorded history, including a late nineteenth century African pandemic that killed the great majority of cattle across the continent and contributed to widespread famine.
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