Rinderpest: a continuing threat to livestock
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
