rinderpest

Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic water buffalo, and many other species of even-toed ungulates, including gaurs, buffalo, bison, antelope, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, and warthogs. The disease was characterized by fever, oral erosions, diarrhea, lymphoid necrosis, and high mortality. Death rates during outbreaks were usually extremely high, approaching 100% in immunologically naïve populations. Rinderpest was mainly transmitted by direct contact and by drinking contaminated water, although it could also be transmitted by air.

Rinderpest is believed to have originated in Asia, and to have spread by transport of cattle. The term Rinderpest () is a German word meaning "cattle plague". Rinderpest virus (RPV) belongs to the genus Morbillivirus, alongside measles virus - its closest relative - and canine distemper virus. The measles virus may have diverged from rinderpest around the 6th century BC, coinciding with the first human settlements large enough to sustain endemic measles transmission. After a global eradication campaign that began in the mid-20th century, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001. In 2010, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced that field activities in the decades-long, worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease were ending, paving the way for a formal declaration in June 2011 of the global eradication of rinderpest. This makes it only the second disease in history to be fully wiped out, following smallpox.