# Cattle Disease Rinderpest Eradicated **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 28, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542 "2011-05-28T07:22:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/1 "2011-05-28T07:22:55Z")
Apparently only the second disease ever globally eradicated, smallpox being the first of course. [Link](http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rinderpest-or-cattle-plague-becomes-only-second-disease-to-be-eradicated/2011/05/26/AGMPENCH_story.html): > [@](#): > > Eradication is the Holy Grail of disease prevention and has been successful only once before. Smallpox, an equally devastating human scourge, was eradicated in 1980, proving it is possible to stamp out a microbe across the entire planet. Attempts are underway to rid the world of polio and Guinea worm disease. > > The bovine equivalent of measles, rinderpest is described in ancient Chinese writings and in documents from the Roman Empire. It hobbled Charlemagne when he moved herds to support his armies in the 8th century. When it entered Ethiopia in 1889, it caused starvation that killed one-third of the country’s human population, even though the microbe does not infect people. > > \ > > Rinderpest, which means “cattle plague” in German, is highly contagious and has a fatality rate of about 80 percent. It is the only animal disease to have been eradicated; smallpox occurs only in human beings. An impressive achievement, and good riddance. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/2 "2011-05-28T07:31:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/3 "2011-05-28T07:57:21Z")
One small step for man, one giant leap for bovine. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/4 "2011-05-28T08:01:15Z")
Cows so happy they are jumping over the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/5 "2011-05-28T08:53:59Z")
Very cool. Two down, just a few more to go! ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/6 "2011-05-28T08:56:58Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![ramel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb8c5e/32.png) [@ramel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ramel)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/7 "2011-05-28T09:10:53Z")
It’s great news! Unfortunately there are other diseases which we almost wiped out that are now coming back due to various reasons. [Wiki linky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_eradication) ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/8 "2011-05-28T19:06:53Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/9 "2011-05-28T19:14:16Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/10 "2011-05-28T19:18:33Z")
> [@ramel](#): > > Unfortunately there are other diseases which we almost wiped out that are now coming back due to various reasons. I wouldn’t count on any eradications in the near future thanks to vaxxers. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/11 "2011-05-29T06:46:06Z")
[Mostly video link from Al Jazeera English.](http://english.aljazeera.net/video/americas/2011/05/201152833513661895.html) There is a summary: > [@](#): > > Rinderpest - the German name for cattle plague - has felled herds of cattle across the world for centuries, causing human famine and economic disaster. > > Veterinary epidemiologists announced this week that it had been eradicated - something that has happened to only one other disease in history - smallpox. [Wikipedia has a well-sourced article on the disease.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rinderpest) It was a viral disease similar to the measles and canine distemper viruses; the last confirmed case was diagnosed in 2001. [_The Guardian_’s article says it had an 80% mortality rate in cattle, and that John Anderson, the head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, said its eradication is “the biggest achievement of veterinary history”.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/oct/14/rinderpest-virus-eradicated) 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. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/12 "2011-05-29T06:55:38Z")
I guess you hadn’t herd. There’s already a [thread on this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=610291) ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/13 "2011-05-29T07:36:12Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > I guess you hadn’t herd. There’s already a [thread on this.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=610291) I guess we’ll have to vaca-te this thread and stampede over to that pasture. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/14 "2011-05-29T18:19:55Z")
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](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/26/rinderpest_eradicated/), 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. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/15 "2011-05-29T18:35:29Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > I wouldn’t count on any eradications in the near future thanks to vaxxers. Yep, you wonder if \antivaxers\ 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…” > [@Karl Gauss](#): > > The virus similar to rinderpest… Why do I have this Prince song going through my head? ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/16 "2011-05-29T19:16:01Z")
Science. It works, bitches. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/17 "2011-05-29T23:23:04Z")
How can you tell if a cow is autistic? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/18 "2011-05-29T23:51:51Z")
> [@Wile\_E](#): > > How can you tell if a cow is autistic? It refuses to fly on any airline except Qantas? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/19 "2011-05-30T00:24:02Z")
[Already noted.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=610291) 🙂 Asking for merge. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/20 "2011-05-30T00:55:32Z")
Merged duplicate threads. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542.md?page=2)