Global Rinderpest Eradication: Lessons Learned and Why Humans Should Celebrate Too

Mota and Qaranyo, why are they notplowed?. I came from there to here withoutseeing an ox.-Line from Ethiopian poem1, 2, 1890sAfter more than a decade of effortby the Global Rinderpest EradicationProgramme (GREP) of the UN Foodand Agricultural Organization (FAO), theOrganisation mondiale de la sante´(Office international des e´pizootiesOIE), and the International AtomicEnergy Agency (IAEA), among others3–5, the veterinary disease rinderpest(Figure 1) was declared eradicated on25 May 2011 6. Since rinderpest virusdoes not cause human disease, why isthis achievement important to humans?Since at least the Roman era, rinder-pest (German for ‘‘cattle plague’’) hasbeen indirectly responsible for countlesshuman deaths resulting from agriculturallosses that led to famine and disease. TheEthiopian poem cited above refers to anAfrican rinderpest panzootic that causedrapid loss of virtually all of the cattle,buffaloes, elands, and wild swine, as wellas many sheep, goats, and wildlife species,such as antelopes, gazelles, giraffes,hartebeest, and wildebeest (the ‘‘GreatEthiopian Famine’’ of 1887–1892 2, 7–11). Rinderpest virus (RPV) not onlyinfects cattle but also infects