Rinderpest experience.

Abstract

Rinderpest, the most dreaded disease of cattle, originated as far back as the domestication of cattle, occurring in Asia more than 10,000 years ago. It has been the main preoccupation of Veterinary Service activities for many centuries and was the major motivation for establishing the first veterinary school in Lyon, France, in 1761. Gaining control of the disease was the impetus for the founding of many regional and international organisations (including the World Organisation for Animal Health). Outbreaks of rinderpest have led to food shortages and starvation, economic losses and poverty, social unrest, and disrupted transport networks in regions where agriculture was dependent on draught cattle. The rinderpest virus, causative agent of the disease, has also been used as a biological weapon in the past. Many regional rinderpest eradication campaigns have been implemented, including Joint Project 15; the Pan-African Rinderpest Campaign (PARC); the South Asia Rinderpest Eradication Campaign; the West Asia Rinderpest Eradication Campaign; and the Pan African Programme for the Control of Epizootics. All of these campaigns were supported by regional and international organisations, and the disease was finally eradicated in 2011. The benefit of PARC in terms of the value of avoided losses in cattle products due to the decrease in the disease's occurrence was estimated to be between 581,000 and 35,433,000 European currency units. Currently, the world is prepared to prevent the deliberate or accidental release of the remaining infectious rinderpest virus material which exists in research and diagnostic facilities across the world.