It has ruined livestock farmers and unleashed famines that in turn have fuelled turbulence and war.


Stamping it out, a quest that can be traced back to 1920, brought together the World Organisation for Animal Health, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization and national veterinary agencies. Their prime weapons have been vaccines as well as routine surveillance, in which outbreaks are swiftly spotted by veterinarians and then circumscribed.


What is this you are probably thinking, well its rinderpest, also called cattle plague.  Highly contagious and often fatal among bovine species but not infectious for humans, the rinderpest virus has a destructive history going back two thousand years. 


Ann Tutwiler, said  "We have a tremendous success that we can count today. It's a success that's born of cooperation, collaboration and partnership and most particularly knowledge,"  

We can make sure this doesn't happen again.