Surinder Sud: Good riddance, rinderpest

The world has won the fight against the dreaded livestock disease

The year 2011 will be remembered for the world ridding itself of one of the most dreaded livestock diseases called “rinderpest” or cattle plague. This is the first cattle disease and only the second among all diseases, after small pox in human beings to have been totally wiped out. Both these scourges claimed millions of lives of cattle and human beings every year, causing incalculable economic losses as well.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Orgnisation (FAO) acknowledge “Global Freedom from Rinderpest” on June 28, 2011, by passing a resolution in its 37th conference attended by representatives from 192 member countries. Celebrations are being held in India this week to mark this feat.

Historically, rinderpest has been viewed as the most destructive contagious viral infection of cloven-hoofed animals (those with hooves split into two). It routinely infected livestock of economic importance, such as cattle, buffaloes, sheep, goats, pigs and camels, besides similar wild species like antelopes, deer and others.

Annually, about 400,000 bovines used to die in India of rinderpest. During epidemics, the destruction of cattle used to be so huge that milk and meat would turn scarce and animal-driven farm operations would come to a standstill, leaving the fields untilled and farm households struggling for subsistence.

India’s fight against rinderpest was somewhat, even if not entirely, similar to that against malaria. It was marked by phases of success, when the incidence of the disease dropped to negligible levels, followed by the resurgence of the infection with a vengeance. The first major countrywide rinderpest control project launched in 1954 had succeeded in bringing down the incidence of the disease from 196 per 100,000 animals to a mere 1.2 per 100,000 animals. But the disease staged a comeback with outbreaks being reported from several states, requiring strategies to be revamped.

The conquest of rinderpest, indeed, proved far more arduous than that of other viral afflictions like bird flu or swine flu. Those infections could be contained effectively in the areas in which they occurred by culling affected populations and other animals in surrounding areas. Europe and many other countries facing a similar rinderpest menace had also used culling, along with the compulsory movement restrictions on animals and other means to contain this scourge. But in India, killing cattle on such a scale was neither practical nor advisable. Mass vaccination and other biosafety measures were the only viable means. Fortunately, these measures have been successful, thanks to research backup, especially in terms of the evolution and continuous refinement of vaccinations.

Much of the research on rinderpest vaccines was conducted at Mukteshwar, near Nainital where the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory was set up way back in 1880. It subsequently became a part of the Indian Veterinary Research Institution (IVRI), Izatnagar (Uttar Pradesh). It produced different kinds of innovative vaccines that finally helped eradicate this plague.

Despite the ups and downs in the battle against rinderpest, it goes to India’s credit that it managed to eradicate it from its soil sooner than several other countries. Participation in the FAO-sponsored global campaign against rinderpest also helped the country immensely. India sought recognition from the international committee of the World Organisation for Animal Health as a rinderpest-free country in August 2005 and got it on May 25, 2006, a good five years before the whole world was granted disease-free status. Indeed, the southern bastion of the rinderpest infection, notably Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala, was the last region to be freed of this menace.

The country’s milk output has risen spectacularly ever since the outbreaks of rinderpest became infrequent. The recognition of India’s rinderpest-free status has helped boost meat exports as well.

Notwithstanding this significant success, there is little room for complacency. As the FAO has cautioned, the task now would be to prevent the leakage of the virus from the laboratories where its samples have to be stored and kept alive for any unforeseeable future application. The FAO and global animal health body are working on bio-security guidelines for this purpose. The biggest challenge is to prevent the virus from falling into the hands of unscrupulous elements that can use it as a bio-weapon.

surinder.sud@gmail.com