MASS GRAVE: Dead oxen thought to have died from rinderpest, circa 1900© REINHOLD THIELE/THIELE/GETTY IMAGES
In 2011, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) announced something that had been declared but once before: all trace of a particular virus had been completely wiped off the face of the earth, thanks to human intervention. For more than a century, rinderpest, a morbillivirus related to measles and canine distemper capable of killing an adult bull in days, had plagued livestock owners in Africa. Thanks to widespread vaccination and surveillance efforts, the virus claimed its last victim in 2001. Until then, only smallpox carried the distinction of having been eradicated. Researchers now are looking to the success of the rinderpest campaign as a model for battling other viruses that kill domesticated animals and decimate the livelihoods of the people who depend on them.
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