Apparently only the second disease ever globally eradicated, smallpox being the first of course. Link:
An impressive achievement, and good riddance.
I hope they put some in a lab somewhere like they did with smallpox in case people in the future want to see what it did that was really so bad.
One small step for man, one giant leap for bovine.
Cows so happy they are jumping over the moon.
Very cool. Two down, just a few more to go!
Plum Island, which currently houses one of the national laboratories dealing with foreign animal diseases, probably does have a strain. Heck, they used to keep one there for teaching purposes. Likely a similar laboratory in Europe has some stock.
The virus similar to rinderpest, which causes Peste de Petits Ruminants, is still around and kicking. Similar to rinderpest, but in sheep and goats.
BTW, they do know what made it so bad. It targeted the GI tract primarily, causing massive necrosis of various areas, particularly lymphoid tissue.
It’s great news!
Unfortunately there are other diseases which we almost wiped out that are now coming back due to various reasons.
Rinderpest eradicated, Ratko Mladic captured, Osama bin Laden killed, the Arab spring…the good guys are having a bit of a run at the moment, aren’t they?
Oh sure…until some quack fakes some studies and gets all these farmers up in arms about how getting rid of Rinderpest causes early milk spoilage or some nonsense.
I wouldn’t count on any eradications in the near future thanks to vaxxers.
Mostly video link from Al Jazeera English. There is a summary:
Wikipedia has a well-sourced article on the disease. It was a viral disease similar to the measles and canine distemper viruses; the last confirmed case was diagnosed in 2001.
Personally, I’m somewhat split on what disease I want to be driven to extinction next: Part of me wants to do in polio, based mostly on sentiment, but malaria is probably more important to focus on at this point.
I guess we’ll have to vaca-te this thread and stampede over to that pasture.
Yeah, I know you haven’t heard of Rinderpest. I hadn’t, either. But, it seems it’s the second disease we’ve managed to wipe from the face of the earth, potentially saving millions of lives. And you know who did it? Well, I’m going to tell you who. Scientists, that’s who. Working hard over decades, making mistakes, running into blind ends, but eventually getting to the truth, to the benefit of millions. No one prayed it away, no one sent positive energy to the universe, just solid, hard, organized, scientific work. And, it worked. How about that.
Yep, you wonder if <pissant correction>antivaxers</pc> will come up with the same loony excuses and justifications that emerge when they are reminded of vast reduction or elimination of pestilential human infectious diseases thanks to immunization.
“Rinderpest wasn’t so bad. It was just a rite of passage for cattle. The disease was going away anyway because of better sanitation. More cows are getting allergies because there’s no more rinderpest. Rinderpest is still around but they’re calling it something else. Rinderpest vaccine doesn’t work; they only use it to make money for Big Pharma. Rinderpest vaccine causes bovine autism. Blah, blah, blah…”
Why do I have this Prince song going through my head?
Science. It works, bitches.
How can you tell if a cow is autistic?
It refuses to fly on any airline except Qantas?
Asking for merge.Merged duplicate threads.