Rinderpest eradication from India: Impact on agriculture sector

Abstract

Rinderpest with its devastating history on the livestock (LS) sector has a positive legacy in the creation of first veterinary school in Lyon, Paris, in 1762 and Indian Civil Veterinary Services in 1891. Rinderpest was also instrumental for the establishment of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE): The World Organization for Animal Health in 1924 in Paris. The research on rinderpest in India started with the establishment of Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory (IBL) at Mukteswar in 1893, now known as Indian Veterinary Research Institute. The disease caused serious destruction of large ruminants (cattle and buffaloes), small ruminants (sheep and goats) and pigs, adversely affecting LS production and cattle/buffalo-driven agricultural operations in Indian villages affecting crop production besides causing colossal losses to milk and meat production. In India, rinderpest was endemic from 1900 to 1950, and in its classical form, the disease caused 80–90% mortality among cattle and buffaloes. The new era in the fight to control rinderpest in India started with the development of attenuated goat tissue rinderpest virus vaccine in 1920 by J.T. Edwards, which protected animals from rinderpest for whole of their life. This vaccine was used universally to combat rinderpest in Asian, African and European countries. Subsequently, lapinised, avianised, lapinised-avianised viruses and rinderpest tissue culture vaccines were developed for usage, but it was rinderpest tissue culture vaccine that successfully replaced goat tissue rinderpest vaccine.