Rinderpest report

For a disease that has been around since the Middle Ages, killing millions upon millions of animals in that time, the disease itself now seems to be in its death throes. Since we last reported on rinderpest, Pakistan declared, in January of this year, Provisional Freedom from Rinderpest on the OIE Pathway to Eradication. (See box). This means that the whole of Asia is now almost certainly free of rinderpest: a time for congratulation to all concerned but not a time for complacency.

Pakistan and Afghanistan

credit: Peter Roeder

Afghanistan has, of course, been going through turbulent times in recent years but now that there is increasing trade in livestock over the border with Pakistan, what effect might that have? "Perhaps surprisingly, it gives us greater confidence of the absence of rinderpest," says Peter Roeder, secretary of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme in FAO. There was an epidemic in the eastern region of Afghanistan between '95 and '97. It is now clear that the virus was eradicated and also that it has now gone from Pakistan. "We would, by now, have been seeing a major epidemic of rinderpest in the region had the virus still been present in the south of Pakistan because many thousands of animals are moving every week from there into Afghanistan." If that confidence is misplaced, however, and a small pocket of infection remains, it is in Afghanistan where the outbreak would appear. The livestock health programme, whose activities successfully removed rinderpest six years ago, has collapsed through lack of funds, a situation that is not only serious for rinderpest but for other livestock diseases. Any resurgence could quickly spread to Iran, to Tajikistan and possibly further afield. India was recently recognised by OIE as Free from Rinderpest Disease in all but a small area where vaccination continued until recently. News of the advances made in Pakistan is spreading and now both Iran and India have the confidence to relinquish all use of rinderpest vaccination. Iran has thereby been able to extend its declaration of Provisional Freedom from Rinderpest to the whole country and India will be able to apply for recognition of Freedom from Rinderpest Infection for the whole country at the end of this year. These are all encouraging signs of progress in rinderpest eradication.

Eastern Africa

credit: Peter Roeder

Here the good news is that rinderpest has been eradicated from the south of Sudan, one of the last persisting foci. More uncertain is the Somali pastoral ecosystem spanning the borders between Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, where the virus was last known to be present in 2001, in Meru National Park. The PACE* programme is actively studying the situation and, when it is known positively whether the virus is present or not, will devise the appropriate control strategy. Until then it is a question of containment. But containment inevitably means restricting cross border trade. This hits Somali livestock keepers hard. They can produce some of the best livestock in the world, produced cheaply from extensive rangeland and they have few, if any, other options for earning a living. UNDP working through FAO announced in May this year an initiative to set up a board to support the development and export of Somali livestock and meat products through an improved system of disease surveillance, inspection and certification. The initiative is under the auspices of the Somali business community based in the United Arab Emirates, including livestock and meat traders, who have met with Somali authorities and with representatives from importing countries in the Middle East. It remains to be seen whether this resolves the rinderpest question.

West Africa

Here there is more good news. There has been no rinderpest detected in the region since 1988 and a group of 11 countries in the region have now moved en bloc to the second stage of the OIE Pathway being recognised as Free from Rinderpest Disease. Monitoring worldwide to ensure that no rinderpest activity escapes detection must of course continue. Only when all countries follow and complete the OIE Pathway will the world finally be rid of rinderpest - the first livestock disease that has ever been eradicated from the world. "What a major achievement that would be for the veterinary profession," says Peter Roeder. "It mustn't be allowed to fail now, surely."

* PACE is the African Union Inter-African Bureau of Animal Resources' Pan African Campaign against Epizootics, an organization based in Nairobi, one of whose objectives is to work for the eradication of rinderpest.

Further information: http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/FAOINFO/AGRICULT/AGA/AGAH/EMPRES/grep/e_rinder1.htm
Email: EMPRES-livestock@fao.org

See also: 00-3 Developments: Reporting on rinderpest
99-4 Developments: The final push against rinderpest