Scientists eradicate deadly rinderpest virus

Scientists have eradicated a killer virus in the wild, only the second time such a feat has been achieved in human history.

Researchers at the UN said today that rinderpest, a virus that causes devastating cattle plague, has been wiped out, the first time such an announcement has been made since the end of smallpox more than 30 years ago.

John Anderson, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, called the success "the biggest achievement of veterinary history". Rinderpest is the first animal virus to be contained and then eradicated in the wild.

The rinderpest virus originated in Asia but spread worldwide with help from imported livestock and invaders such as Gengis Khan, whose oxen carried the disease to other countries.

The virus causes respiratory disease and gut problems that lead to diarrhoea, dehydration and eventually death. More than 80% of cattle who contract the virus die from it.

As the virus spread, it left vast numbers of dead livestock in its wake, and communities without meat and milk. The loss of the animals, which were used to plough the land, crippled farming and led to widepsread starvation.

The catastrophic impact of rinderpest led to the establishment of Britain's national veterinary service in 1865, which through surveillance, culls and import restrictions, eradicated the disease in this country two years later.

A global eradication plan for rinderpest, backed by the UN and the World Organisation for Animal Health, was launched in 1994. Scientists at the Institute for Animal Health's (IAH) Pirbright laboratory in Surrey developed pregnancy-test like kits that were distributed in affected countries so that local officials could identify and kill infected livestock. Animals in areas surrounding outbreaks were vaccinated to protect them from the disease.

The eradication programme was feasible because rinderpest has remained as a single strain since it was identified, so all animals can be protected by the same vaccine. Most viruses evolve into a variety of strains, making them much harder to control.

Stocks of the rinderpest virus will be kept in high-security laboratories, including the IAH's own facility.

The last known outbreak of rinderpest was reported in Kenya in 2001, though some disease was thought to have lingered on in Somalia. The last animal vaccinations were given in 2006 and targeted surveillance in 2009 failed to spot new cases of the disease. On the back of the success, the UN closed field operations to curtail the disease this year.

"There has never been such an important and devastating disease as rinderpest in livestock," said Michael Baron of the IAH. "We've known about it and its problems for a thousand years and we've got rid of it."