Rinderpest: a continuing threat to livestock

Despite rinderpest being finally eradicated from nature in 2011, the threat of re-emergence remains. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has therefore continued to urge farmers to learn the symptoms of the disease, and to notify state veterinarians if they suspect an animal may be showing signs of rinderpest.

- Janine Ryan

Few animal diseases have caused as much devastation and economic loss as rinderpest. While having been eradicated from the natural environment, there is some risk that the disease will re-emerge due to governments and laboratories across the world holding on to rinderpest stock. Such a re-emergence could lead to food insecurity and huge financial losses, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and it is for this reason that the FAO and the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (OIE) education on the subject continues to be of great importance. The re-emergence of rinderpest would undermine veterinary biosecurity, result in the restriction of local and international trade, and endanger wildlife, as well as threaten animal welfare and rural livelihoods.

Moreover, it would cost millions of dollars to re-eradicate the disease once again.

The Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme initiated by the FAO and OIE in 1994 led to the successful eradication of rinderpest in 2011, making it the first animal disease to be completely eradicated from nature. It has been estimated that the eradication of rinderpest has saved Africa alone around US$920 million (about R15,42 billion).

HISTORY

Rinderpest is considered the deadliest animal disease in history, and according to the website animalresearch.com, the first outbreak was recorded in 376 CE. While the devastation of the disease led to the establishment of veterinary schools throughout Europe, the disease was not adequately contained, and it was brought to Africa by European settlers in the late 1800s. An outbreak of rinderpest in 1890 caused the death of millions of cattle and was responsible for the starvation of about a third of the human population of Ethiopia and Tanzania respectively.

WHAT IS RINDERPEST?