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An end to cattle plague

Rinderpest is a highly contagious and deadly virus that affects cattle, buffalo and other hoofed animals. It can wipe out entire herds in just seven days or less leaving farmers without food, transport and a means of income.

In 2011, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) are expected to make a joint statement declaring an end to rinderpest. It will be the first time in history an animal disease has been eliminated by human intervention and only the second infectious disease after smallpox to be completely wiped out.

British scientists played a major role in the global fight against rinderpest, developing the vaccines and technology to help diagnose, monitor and prevent the disease.

A global pandemic

Rinderpest was eliminated from England in the 19th century but has plagued Africa, Asia and the Middle East since. Its impacts have been most devastating in poorer countries where agriculture is relied on for food and income. For example, an outbreak in the 1980s killed 100M animals across Africa and Asia, causing an estimated $2 billion worth of losses to Nigeria alone.

Finding a solution

British scientist Walter Plowright developed the first vaccine for rinderperst in the 1960s while working in Kenya. His breakthrough  enabled the first mass vaccination programmes which helped control, but not eliminate, the disease.

During a major outbreak in the 1980s, scientists at the UK Institute for Animal Health (IAH) — a centre of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) — developed diagnostic kits for testing blood samples of vaccinated animals to confirm if the vaccination had been successful.  This technology saved expensive field investigations and was adopted by laboratories around the world. 
In 1994 the FAO launched a global rinderpest eradication campaign and IAH was  appointed host of the World Reference Laboratory for Rinderpest.

Research continued and, with support from the Department for International Development, scientists improved the diagnostic kits by developing a simple device that farmers and vets could use to test cattle in the field without having to send samples back to a lab.  The ‘pen-side test’ produced results in 5-10 minutes using technology similar to a home pregnancy test.

IAH researchers also developed a procedure for identifying the genetic fingerprint of rinderpest, which greatly helped trace the source of an outbreak and determine control measures. 

This application of new technologies combined with the global coordination effort was successful.

The last reported outbreak of rinderpest was in Kenya in 2001.

The FAO are planning to officially confirm the  end of rinderpest in 2011.

Lives and livelihoods saved

Hundreds of lives and livelihoods have been saved thanks to dedicated scientists, governments and local communities who worked together to combat the disease.

The FAO estimates that additional production due to rinderpest’s decline in India alone from 1965 to 1998 added up to $289 billion. The benefits in Africa have been estimated at around $1 billion per year during the same period.

The rinderpest case is a prime example of the role  world-class research institutions in the UK can play in addressing global challenges. Their efforts contributed to what Dr John Anderson, the former head of IAH,  describes as ‘the biggest achievement in veterinary history.

UKCDS Members: BBSRC, DFID