# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/21 "2011-05-30T01:58:36Z")
BTW, this probably hit the big science news just now (haven’t checked links), but articles about its eradication have been going out in the last year or so. IIRC, I did mention that it had been eradicated last year in some thread about animal diseases. **Jackmanii** , didn’t get your last line about Prince. Rinderpest has been a foreign animal disease in many countries for a long time. Most cattle are NOT vaccinated with it. Only cattle in what were the endemic areas were/are vaccinated against it, that’s how they controlled the infection. For most of the world, quarantine and culling worked just fine. But you cannot do that with people. ---
**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 30, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/22 "2011-05-30T15:35:38Z")
Even though the pox viruses are having a bad time of it with another member of the tribe shot down, other viruses are reviving thanks to illogical fears about vaccination. Europe for instance is having a measles outbreak (about 5,000 cases in France for the first three months of 2011, about the same number as for all of 2010), and low immunization rates are blamed. And how are parents reacting? Check out responses to the mother who posted [this query](http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/vaccinations/1221938-MMR-French-measles-outbreak-Vs-auto-immune-risk-WWYD/AllOnOnePage) on Mumsnet (a British parenting website), wondering if the specter of measles (a very real threat) is worse than the imagined prospect of autoimmune disease due to vaccination). Note that while some posters wisely point out the risks of measles, nobody is chastising her over the prospect of her kid catching measles in France and bringing it back home to the U.K. to infect others. > [@KarlGrenze](#): > > **Jackmanii** , didn’t get your last line about Prince. Your comment about “the virus similar to rinderpest” reminded me of “The Artist formerly known as Prince”. Meh, if you gotta explain…🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/23 "2011-05-30T15:56:58Z")
Yes, Mooooove along now… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/24 "2011-05-30T16:13:30Z")
I can’t fathom why we still have smallpox samples in labs. Sequence the full genome and then incinerate that bad boy. In the unlikely event that it somehow turns out in the future that we need it for something, recreate it from the genome sequence, use it for whatever it’s needed for, and then re-extinctify it. The only benefit I can see to keeping actual samples is that it provides job security for authors of international-terrorism thrillers. I’ve also heard rumors that there are still wild reservoirs of the disease in a few isolationist middle-of-nowhere tribes that the doctors were never able to get to, but that’s of course unconfirmable. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/25 "2011-05-30T21:29:53Z")
> [@KarlGrenze](#): > > For most of the world, quarantine and culling worked just fine. But you cannot do that with people. Now _there’s_ something for the anti-vaxxers to chew over. “We understand your concerns about vaccine safety, ma’am. Just so you understand that if either little Timmy or little Susie do get sick, both of them will have to be humanely destroyed.” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/26 "2011-05-30T21:44:22Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > I wouldn’t count on any eradications in the near future thanks to vaxxers. The _vaxxers_ are the good guys. It’s the _anti-vaxxers_ who are causing the resurgence of disease. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/27 "2011-06-01T20:40:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I can’t fathom why we still have smallpox samples in labs. Sequence the full genome and then incinerate that bad boy. In the unlikely event that it somehow turns out in the future that we need it for something, recreate it from the genome sequence, use it for whatever it’s needed for, and then re-extinctify it. The only benefit I can see to keeping actual samples is that it provides job security for authors of international-terrorism thrillers. Can we actually do that reasonably quickly and cheaply if we need to? Make a copy of an organism from a record of it’s DNA? If not, that’s a good reason to keep it around for a while. If so, keeping the samples around is not significantly more risky than keeping the knowledge of how to duplicate them around. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2011, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/28 "2011-06-01T20:46:38Z")
Suck it, microbes! There is something deeply, profoundly satisfying in eliminating an enemy entirely. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/29 "2012-02-04T17:25:26Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Can we actually do that reasonably quickly and cheaply if we need to? Make a copy of an organism from a record of it’s DNA? Sure. As far as viruses are concerned, it’s a very well-established technique. Here’s an example for [vaccinia virus](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12196634), a poxvirus that is closely related to variola (the smallpox agent). If it works for vaccinia, I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t work for variola, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if both the CDC and the Russians had done it. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/30 "2012-02-04T18:47:30Z")
Great name, though. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/31 "2012-02-04T23:16:01Z")
> [@Fish\_Cheer](#): > > Sure. As far as viruses are concerned, it’s a very well-established technique. Here’s an example for [vaccinia virus](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12196634), a poxvirus that is closely related to variola (the smallpox agent). If it works for vaccinia, I don’t see a reason why it shouldn’t work for variola, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if both the CDC and the Russians had done it. AFAICT that paper simply describes cloning by means of a bacterial artificial chromosome - the DNA still needs to exist physically to start with, the procedure simply copies it. I think **walrus** is asking if we can synthesise an entire genome just from a computer record of its sequence. My understanding of THAT is that we can only do small stretches of DNA (maybe a few dozen bases?) at the moment, not entire genomes. Having said that, I remember that a few months ago Craig Venter’s team made world headlines with their ‘synthia’ organism, so maybe they have indeed figured out how to make a whole genome out of a bunch of nucleotides and a flash drive. But I should imagine it’s very cutting edge stuff, probably about as difficult now as genome sequencing was when they’d just done the human genome draft. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/32 "2012-02-04T23:27:34Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > I remember that a few months ago Craig Venter’s team made world headlines with their ‘synthia’ organism, so maybe they have indeed figured out how to make a whole genome out of a bunch of nucleotides and a flash drive. [Indeed.](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/329/5987/52.abstract) > [@](#): > > We report the design, synthesis, and assembly of the 1.08–mega–base pair (…) genome starting from digitized genome sequence information > [@Nancarrow](#): > > But I should imagine it’s very cutting edge stuff, probably about as difficult now as genome sequencing was when they’d just done the human genome draft. You can get up to 20,000 base pairs synthesized [commercially](http://de-de.invitrogen.com/site/de/de/home/Products-and-Services/Applications/Cloning/gene-synthesis/GeneArt-Gene-Synthesis/GeneArt-Standard-and-XXL-Genes.html). Not quite variola, but more than enough for influenza or Ebola. I do admit though that I have misread **walrus** ’ post. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2012, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/33 "2012-02-05T01:52:02Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > AFAICT that paper simply describes cloning by means of a bacterial artificial chromosome - the DNA still needs to exist physically to start with, the procedure simply copies it. I think **walrus** is asking if we can synthesise an entire genome just from a computer record of its sequence. My understanding of THAT is that we can only do small stretches of DNA (maybe a few dozen bases?) at the moment, not entire genomes. They [manufactured the polio virus](http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/13/us/polio-virus-made-with-artificial-genetic-material.html) as far back as 1981. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/34 "2012-02-05T14:17:41Z")
This changes a lot. If we can wipe out the Tsetse fly (and so Sleeping Sickness) Africa can provide all the world’s beef! ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2012, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542/35 "2012-02-05T14:58:06Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They [manufactured the polio virus](http://www.nytimes.com/1981/11/13/us/polio-virus-made-with-artificial-genetic-material.html) as far back as 1981. Like the vaccinia experiment I linked to above, this did not involve a _de novo_ synthesis of the genome, though. As far as poliovirus is concerned, [that](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/297/5583/1016) took another 20 years. With today’s technology, the artificial synthesis and assembly of the variola virus genome (only 25 times larger than that of poliovirus) is entirely feasible if somewhat costly. The subsequent rescue of infectious virus, on the other hand, is trivial. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cattle-disease-rinderpest-eradicated/583542.md?page=1)