A DEVASTATING cattle disease known as rinderpest has been eradicated, an unprecedented achievement, the world monitor for trade in farm animals has declared. Viciously contagious and often fatal, the rinderpest virus is also known as cattle plague. It has been a curse to livestock farmers throughout the ages, often contributing to famines that in turn have fuelled turbulence and war. Its eradication - the result of a decades-long campaign of vaccination and disease surveillance - was approved today to loud applause at a long-expected ceremony at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE).
Which isn't part of the UN.
Fourteen countries were the last on the list of nations to be certified rinderpest-free. Veterinarians liken the achievement to the stamping out of smallpox, certified in 1979.
"It's a very proud moment in the history of our profession," said Bill Taylor, who gave a report on the final stages of the eradication campaign, led by the OIE and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
who did their part by racking up expenses in 5 star hotels and restaurants.. |