title: The long journey: a brief review of the eradication of rinderpest.
abstract: In 2011, the 79th General Session of the World Assembly of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the 37th Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAD) Conference adopted a resolution declaring the world free from rinderpest and recommending follow-up measures to preserve the benefits of this new and hard-won situation. Eradication is an achievable objective for any livestock disease, provided that the epidemiology is uncomplicated and the necessary tools, resources and policies are available. Eradication at a national level inevitably reflects national priorities, whereas global eradication requires a level of international initiative and leadership to integrate these tools into a global framework, aimed first at suppressing transmission across all infected areas and concluding with a demonstration thatthis has been achieved. With a simple transmission chain and the environmental fragility of the virus, rinderpest has always been open to control and even eradication within a zoosanitary approach. However, in the post-1945 drive for more productive agriculture, national and global vaccination programmes became increasingly relevant and important. As rinderpest frequently spread from one region to another through trade-related livestock movements, the key to global eradication was to ensure that such vaccination programmes were carried out in a synchronised manner across all regions where the disease was endemic - an objective to which the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the African Union-Interafrican Bureau of Animal Resources, FA0 and OIE fully subscribed. This article provides a review of rinderpest eradication, from the seminal work carried out by Giovanni Lancisi in the early 18th Century to the global declaration in 2011.
authors.affiliation: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Njeumi
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diallo
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyagishima
authors.forename: P-P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Pastoret
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Vallat
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Traore
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D002417:Cattle; D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000379:methods; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D049669:History, 16th Century; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D058873:Pandemics / Q000266:history / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary; D012301:Rinderpest / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D012302:Rinderpest virus / Q000276:immunology; D014611:Vaccination / Q000266:history / Q000662:veterinary; D014765:Viral Vaccines / Q000266:history / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D014765:Viral Vaccines