Ridding the world of rinderpest

Concerted effort by national veterinary services in both industrialised and developing countries, aided by international organisations, has brought the once dreaded rinderpest livestock disease to the point of extinction. In its severest form, rinderpest is capable of killing up to 95 per cent of the animals it infects. However, the development of new vaccine technologies, community-based health delivery and disease searching techniques and diagnostic tools over the last 20 years has helped to protect the livelihoods of the livestock-dependent rural poor in developing countries and avoid massive financial losses in terms of milk, meat, and animal traction.