Eradicating rinderpest

Following the complete eradication of smallpox in 1979, rinderpest looks set to become the second disease in history to be wiped off the face of the Earth. Although it does not directly attack humans, its devastating effect on livestock is responsible for high malnutrition and mortality rates in people living in several countries of the South. In Africa, the Pan-African Programme for the Control of Epizootics (PACE) is heading a network to combat and monitor the disease. To date, 12 of the 30 member countries have already been declared free of rinderpest infection . This is the top level of animal health certification offered by PACE. It comes into force 3 years after a country has declared itself to be provisionally free of rinderpest , provided that international controls, carried out under the auspices of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), have not revealed any fresh cases in the meantime. This stage of certification is given when animals have neither been vaccinated, nor contracted the disease for a period of 3 years. After a further period of at least 1 year, a country that respects the strictest standards for rinderpest may be given the highest grade of certification available from PACE: freedom from rinderpest infection . Five countries were due to be declared rinderpest free during the course of 2005. The goal of the rinderpest programme is complete eradication before the 2010 deadline. OIE sees current progress in tackling this disease as particulalry encouraging since it marks the first time that a significant number of sub-Saharan African countries have been able to collectively satisfy international animal health standards. Eradicating the disease will not just enable these countries to feed their people. It will also put them in a position to access regional and international markets for animal products such as meat, hides and dairy products