Rinderpest

ÖZ Bu araştırma ondokuzuncu yüzyılda asker ve sivil veterinerler tarafından hazırlanan iki adet risaleyi tanıtmayı amaçlamaktadır.19. yüzyıl, Osmanlı devletinde birçok kanun, nizamname ve risalenin yayımlandığı bir dönemdir. Bu dönemde sığırlarda meydana gelen büyük kayıplar devleti bu konuda tedbir almaya itmiştir. Bu çerçevede 19. yüzyıl sonlarında kır toplumunun vazgeçilmez unsuru olan sığırlarda meydana gelen veba (tifüs) ve zatülcenp verrie-i sari hastalığı ile ilgili iki risale hazırlanmıştır. Risalelerde hastalıkların belirtileri, hastalıklarla mücadele şekilleri ile birlikte mahalli idarecilerin, veterinerlerin (baytar) ve ahalinin uyması gereken kurallar ayrı ayrı belirlenmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler Askeri baytar, Binbaşı Minas b. Evâdis, salgın, sığır vebası, zatülcenp hastalığı, hayvan hastalıkları risaleleri, Miralay Ali Faik b. Mustafa. ABSTRACT TWO BOOKLETS PREPARED AT THE ENDS OF THE 19TH CENTURY IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: RINDERPEST AND CIRSAM This article aims at disclosing two booklets prepared by civilian and military vets in the nineteenth century.19 th century was a period of publishing many regulations, booklets, enacting laws in the Ottoman Empire. The huge death numbers of cattle forced the government to take the preventive measures in this period. In this context, two booklets were prepared at the ends of the 19th century about the disease of typhus-fever and cirsam of cattle, the indispensible elements of the village society. The symptoms of the diseases, the methods of struggles, the rules that local officers, veterinaries and community must be obeyed, were defined separately in these booklets.

One-step multiplex RT-PCR assay for the detection of peste des petits ruminants virus in clinical samples Veterinary Research Communications, 30(6), 655-666 ABSTRACT A single-tube one-step multiplex RT-PCR was standardized to amplify both 337 bp and 191 bp fragments of N and M genes of peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV), respectively, and only a 337 bp fragment of N gene of Rinderpest virus (RPV). The RT-PCR using purified viral RNA was easily adopted for direct detection of PPRV in clinical field samples and its differentiation from RPV. The amplified N and M gene products were confirmed to be PPRV-and RPV-specific by their size in 1.5% agarose gel and restriction analysis. In the assay, the Qiagen one-step RT-PCR kit containing the Ominiscript and Sensiscript reverse transcriptases and Hot star Taq DNA polymerase was utilized. The sensitivity of the assay was found to be 100 fg of PPRV RNA. Compared with a two-step assay, the one-step assay is easier and time-saving as it requires just a single buffer for both reactions, reverse transcription (RT) and PCR. In experimentally infected goats, PPRV was detectable by the one-step RT-PCR in nasal and ocular swabs 7-17 days post infection (p.i.). and in oral swabs 7-15 days p.i. Out of 32 clinical field samples tested, 18 were positive by sandwich ELISA (S-ELISA), while 22 were positive by the one-step RT-PCR.

Note: Due to copyright restrictions, this paper is a "pre-print" of the "Version of Record". I welcome anyone to download the official version of this paper (while supplies last) at the following website: http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/zdKmYGU4mExiCPtfjsRh/full

Rinderpest is often misunderstood in the context of southern Africa's 1896 epizootic; it is marginalised or ignored by many (and overemphasised by a few) scholars. The literature often tells a story that pits people, environment and disease against each other in a struggle over control of the region, a story in which rinderpest invariably emerges as the victor. However, this story fails to consider the epidemiology of the disease. I argue that rinderpest emerges as the victor because of people and environment, not in spite of them. The disease could not move of its own accord; it depended on environmental factors, cattle management practices and human conflict. Rinderpest's epidemiology compels scholars to wrestle with an ironic process in which African and white pastoralists and colonial officials collectively spread the disease by working against each other. Coupled with the disease's use of the local environment to spread itself, rinderpest effectively decimated the region's cattle herds. Focusing on the disease's epidemiology challenges scholarly assumptions such as African passivity, colonial hegemony or environmental determinism inherent in this narrative. I shift the focus away from these historical ideas and inevitable outcomes to focus on the process of this event. By exploring what happens during the rinderpest epizootic and why, this article may challenge some assumptions of past conclusions. I examine these ideas using the recent work of J.R. McNeill and focusing on the example of Southern Bechuanaland.

Data from long-term ecological studies further understanding of ecosystem dynamics and can guide evidence-based management. In a quasi-natural experiment we examined long-term monitoring data on different components of the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem to trace the effects of disturbances and thus to elucidate cause-and-effect connections between them. The long-term data illustrated the role of food limitation in population regulation in mammals, particularly in migratory wildebeest and nonmigratory buffalo. Predation limited populations of smaller resident ungulates and small carnivores. Abiotic events, such as droughts and floods, created disturbances that affected survivorship of ungulates and birds. Such disturbances showed feedbacks between biotic and abiotic realms. Interactions between elephants and their food allowed savanna and grassland communities to co-occur. With increased woodland vegetation, predators' capture of prey increased. Anthropogenic disturbances had direct (hunting) and indirect (transfer of disease to wildlife) effects. Slow and rapid changes and multiple ecosystem states became apparent only over several decades and involved events at different spatial scales. Conservation efforts should accommodate both infrequent and unpredictable events and long-term trends. Management should plan on the time scale of those events and should not aim to maintain the status quo. Systems can be self-regulating through food availability and predator-prey interactions; thus, culling may not be required. Ecosystems can occur in multiple states; thus, there may be no a priori need to maintain one natural state. Finally, conservation efforts outside protected areas must distinguish between natural change and direct human-induced change. Protected areas can act as ecological baselines in which human-induced change is kept to a minimum Dinámica del Ecosistema a Largo Plazo en el Serengeti: Lecciones para la Conservación Resumen: Los datos de estudios ecológicos de largo plazo favorecen el entendimiento de la dinámica del ecosistema. En un experimento cuasi natural, examinamos los datos de monitoreo de largo plazo de diferentes componentes del Ecosistema Serengeti-Mara para rastrear los efectos de perturbaciones y por lo tanto dilucidar conexiones causa-efecto entre ellos. Los datos de largo plazo mostraron el papel de la limitación de alimento en la regulación poblacional de mamíferos, particularmente enñus migratorios y búfalos no migratorios. La depredación limitó a las poblaciones de ungulados menores residentes y carnívoros pequeños. Los eventos abióticos, como sequías e inundaciones, crearon perturbaciones que afectaron la supervivencia de ungulados y aves. Tales perturbaciones mostraron realimentaciones entre las esferas biótica y abiótica. ‡ Ecosystem Dynamics in the Serengeti 581 Las interacciones entre elefantes y su alimento permitieron la co-ocurrencia de comunidades de sabana y pastizal. Con el incremento de la vegetación leñosa, aumentó la captura de presas por los depredadores. Las perturbaciones antropogénicas tuvieron efectos directos (cacería) e indirectos (transferencia de enfermedades a la vida silvestre). Los cambios lentos y rápidos y los estados múltiples del ecosistema se hicieron aparentes solo después de varias décadas e involucraron eventos en diferentes escalas espaciales. Los esfuerzos de conservación deben acomodar tanto a eventos poco frecuentes como eventos impredecibles, así como las tendencias a largo plazo. La gestión debería planificar sobre la escala de tiempo de esos eventos y no debería tratar de mantener el status quo. Los sistemas pueden ser auto regulables por medio de la disponibilidad de alimento y las interacciones depredador -presa; por lo tanto, puede que no se requiera la caza selectiva. Los ecosistemas pueden ocurrir en estados múltiples; por lo tanto, a priori no hay necesidad de mantener un estado natural. Finalmente, los esfuerzos de conservación fuera de lasáreas protegidas deben distinguir entre cambio natural y cambio inducido directamente por humanos. Lasáreas protegidas pueden fungir como bases ecológicas donde los cambios inducidos por humanos son mantenidos al mínimo.

Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2007)
This work examines the reasons for the spread of rinderpest in Southern Bechuanaland and Hereroland between 1896 and 1897. A febrile and highly contagious disease affecting livestock and wild ungulate populations, rinderpest exacted a heavy death toll on the populations it touched, killing upwards of 97 percent. Part of the larger African rinderpest panzootic of 1887-1897, the disease has been the focus of many historical inquiries assessing its economic, political, and social consequences. Absent from these accounts, however, is the disease itself. By glossing over the disease's beginnings, scholars have drawn an incomplete picture of this event. In their rush to examine its aftermath, many have portrayed rinderpest as a monolithic entity that moved on its own accord, swept over large territories, and destroyed everything in its path. This was not the case. As argued here, the spread of rinderpest was heavily moderated by human actions. Assisted by tenuous relationships among pastoral populations and governments as well as the built and natural environments, rinderpest was able to spread with relative ease. Humans assumed responsibility for the disease's spread by moving infected cattle into contact with susceptible populations and implementing policies that either protected wild ungulate populations or prompted pastoralists to flee or resist and thus further spread the disease. Humans were also indirectly responsible for the spread of rinderpest. As evidenced in the built environment, roads connecting watering points often attracted large numbers of infected and susceptible populations, thereby creating ideal conditions for transmission. The natural environment also influenced herders and their cattle. The change from rainy to dry seasons, for example, prompted cattle and wild ungulates to gather at a shrinking number of grazing areas, thus increasing the possibility for rinderpest transmission. Therefore, in their attempts to stop it, control it, move away from it, inoculate against it, cope with it, profit from it, or ignore it, populations in Hereroland and Southern Bechuanaland ensured rinderpest's spread.

Osmanlı Devleti çok geniş coğrafyalarda hüküm sürmüş, ekonomisi
tarım, hayvancılık ve daha ziyade bu ürünlerin ticaretine dayanan bir devlettir.
Buna rağmen Osmanlı Devleti yakınçağlarda Avrupa’da meydana çıkan
birtakım tarımsal teknik ve teknolojik gelişmeleri, ekonomisinin bel kemiğini
oluşturan tarım ve hayvancılık faaliyetlerinde tatbik edememiştir.
Özellikle 19. yüzyılda meydana gelen hayvan hastalıkları bütün Osmanlı
Coğrafyası’nda olduğu gibi Diyarbekir’de de hayvancılığı olumsuz
etkilemiştir. Özellikle bu dönemde görülen veba-i bakarî hastalığı Diyarbekir’de
binlerle ifade edilen miktarlarda sığırların ölümüne sebep olmuş
ve bu durum hem 19. yüzyılda Diyarbekir’de yapılan hayvancılığa hem de
Osmanlı Devleti’nin ekonomisine sert bir darbe vurmuştur.
Bu çalışmada 19. yüzyılın son çeyreğinde Diyarbekir’de meydana
gelen veba-i bakarî hastalığı incelenecektir. 19. yüzyılda Osmanlı Devleti’nin
içerisinde bulunmuş olduğu ekonomik koşullar kısaca incelenecek,
hayvancılığın Osmanlı Devleti ve Osmanlı’nın kent ekonomisi üzerindeki
önemine değinilecektir.
Çalışmada üzerinde durulan diğer bir sorunsal da; Osmanlı Devleti’nin
hem merkezi idare hem de yerel idare bağlamında veba-i bakarî karşısında
ortaya koymuş olduğu afetle mücadele metotları ve bu metotların
sonuçlarıdır. Bu minvalde veba-i bakarî hastalığı ile yakından ilişkili olan
Osmanlı Devleti’nde veterinerlik mesleğine değinilecek ve Avrupa’da bu
mesleğin inkişafı ile Osmanlı Devleti’ndeki durumu incelenecektir. Bunun
yanında Osmanlı Devleti’nin veba-i bakarî ile ilgili aldığı önlemler ve bunların
sonuçları incelenecektir.
***  ***  ***  ***
The Ottoman state, which covered a very wide area, was a state
whose economy was based on agriculture, animal husbandry and to an even
greater extent on the trade of agricultural and animal products. Although
these activities were the mainstay of its economy, the Ottoman state did not
succeed in applying to them the wide range of technical and technological
developments that had taken place in Europe.
Especially the animal diseases that in the 19. century appeared in Diyarbekir,
just as they did in the entire Ottoman state, had a negative effect
on animal husbandry. In particular the rinderpest disease, which occurred in
this period, caused the death of thousands of cattle and dealt a harsh blow
both to animal husbandry in Diyarbekir and to the economy of the Ottoman
state.
In this article we will study the rinderpest disease that occurred in
Diyarbekir in the last quarter of the 19th century. Investigating the economic
conditions of the Ottoman state, we will cast a quick look on the importance
of animal husbandry for the Ottoman state and the Ottoman urban economy.
After establishing the chronology of the rinderpest disease, we will focus on
the effect that it had on the animals. Then we will make a few rough estimates
about the spread of the disease to the Ottoman state and to Diyarbekir.
In our article we will attempt to delineate another issue as well: the
methods of fighting catastrophes that the Ottoman state applied against rinderpest
in the context of both central administration and local administration
and the results of these methods. Here we will focus on the veterinary profession
in the Ottoman state, which closely concerned itself with rinderpest,
and we will investigate the condition of this profession in the Ottoman state
together with its establishment in Europe. Besides, we will attempt to study
all measures that the Ottoman state had taken concerning rinderpest and the
effectivity of these measures.

Contains chapters on:
- The spread of rinderpest throughout the Austrian Netherlands and an investigation of why some regions were hit harder than others.
- The implementation of a stamping out policy and the difficulties that were encountered.
- Veterinary knowledge among different groups.
- The system of stamping out on the ground and how it was made to work.

I'm no longer academically active, but please let me know if you would like access to my data or whatever.

The eradication of rinderpest virus (RPV) from the globe was possible through the availability of a safe and effective live attenuated vaccine and a suitable companion diagnostic test. However, the inability to serologically 'Differentiate between naturally Infected and Vaccinated Animals' (DIVA) meant that both the time taken to complete the eradication programme and the economic burden on countries involved was significantly greater than if a vaccine and companion diagnostic test that fulfilled the DIVA concept had been available. During the RPV eradication campaign serosurveillance for RPV was primarily based on a competitive ELISA using a RPV specific (C1) monoclonal antibody (mAb) directed against the viral haemagglutinin (H) protein but this test was not able to meet DIVA requirements. To provide proof of concept for the generation of novel morbillivirus DIVA vaccines we have identified, by phage display, and mutated residues critical for C1 mAb binding and assessed the functionality of mutants in an in vitro fusion assay. Finally we have incorporated mutated epitopes into a full length clone and rescued recombinant RPV using reverse genetics techniques. Here we describe a novel mechanism of marking morbillivirus vaccines, using RPV as a proof of concept, and discuss the applicability of this method to the development of marked vaccines for peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV).

The peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute and highly contagious, notifiable viral disease of sheep and goats that causes substantial morbidity and mortality. There are three cell culture-based live attenuated PPR vaccines available (one from an African isolate and two from Indian isolates). The PPR vaccine produced by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute has been extensively evaluated in the field and found safe and potent in sheep and goats in India. Diagnostic tests, such as the sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (s?ELISA), competitive ELISA, single and duplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCRs) and RT-PCR-ELISA at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute have also been validated on a large scale. Furthermore, the expertise that remained after the successful eradication of rinderpest in the National Project on Rinderpest Eradication can be utilised effectively for the eradication of PPR without much additional budgetary expense. Thus, the availability of an effective vaccine, accurate diagnostic tests for PPR and an experienced infrastructure prompt us to propose a national project for a peste des petits ruminants eradication programme on the lines of National Project on Rinderpest Eradication. This would greatly enhance the prospects of PPR eradication not only on a national level but also from the Asian continent, alleviate poverty and, in turn, contribute to the national economy.

During the second half of the 1890s, southeastern Africa was hit by a drought-driven ecological crisis. Using records previously unexploited for climate and climate impact research, and which cover the area from modern-day Zimbabwe and Botswana to eastern South Africa, this study explores the complexity of this crisis through an analysis of the spatial extent, duration and severity of the regional drought and its associated socioeconomic and environmental repercussions. This interdisciplinary study stands at the nexus of environmental, economic and social history. The records used include (a) British administrative sources, (b) reports and letters by members of various Protestant missionary societies from diverse environments across the study area, together with (c) local newspapers. Analysis of these materials reveals that generally the period was marked by a sequence of considerably delayed rainy seasons, which in turn negatively impacted upon the rain-fed agriculture. Below-average levels of summer rainfall also adversely affected the development of young crops. The drought was more severe and continuous in the interior of the region than towards the Indian Ocean coast. The prolonged dry conditions were accompanied by, and likely exacerbated, locust outbreaks and the spread of cattle plague (Rinderpest). We demonstrate in this paper that drought, as the original driver of the crisis, triggered a cascade of responses from harvest failure to famine and ultimately led to profound socioeconomic change.

Monoclonal antibody-based competitive ELISA (C-ELISA) has been used for the specific measurement of antibodies to peste des petits ruminants (PPR) viruses in sheep, goats, cattle and Buffalo. Serum samples from sheep (n = 232), goats (n = 428), cattle (n = 43), buffalo (n = 89) were tested. The animals had not been vaccinated against rinderpest or PPR. Findings suggested that the sero-positive cases were significantly higher in sheep (51.29%) than in goats (39.02%) (P = 0.002). The overall sero-prevalence of PPRV in small ruminants was 43.33%. The PPR antibodies seroprevalence was 67.42% in buffalo and 41.86% in cattle which was significantly higher in buffalo (P = 0.005). The overall sero-prevalence of PPRV in large ruminants was 59.09%. Cattle and buffalo sera showed a high prevalence of antibody against PPR virus which may explain the difficulty experienced in achieving high post-vaccination immunity levels against rinderpest. Because antibodies against PPR virus are both cross-neutralizing and cross-protective against rinderpest virus, further vaccination in the presence of antibodies against PPR virus may be a waste of national resources. It was also suggested that antibodies to PPR virus could prevent an immune response to the rinderpest vaccine. This paper presents serological evidence for the transmission of PPR virus from sheep and goats to cattle and buffalo and highlights the need to include PPR serology in the sero-monitoring programme to give a better indication of national herd immunity of sheep and goats against PPR.

This article combines written and plausible physical evidence for the human-bovine plagues (large outbreaks of acute disease) in 569-570 and 986-988 C.E. with evidence from two recent and independent molecular clock analyses (MCAs) that establish the divergence of measles (MV) from rinderpest (RPV) c. 1000 C.E. It proposes that the plagues of 569-570 and 986-988 testify to the outbreak of an MV-RPV ancestor that caused mass mortality in cattle and people. In other words, when spreading among cattle, a now-extinct morbillivirus episodically colonized and spread in human populations during the early Middle Ages. 1

Summary The authors provide a report on the surveillance of rinderpest virus (RPV) and peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) in the wildlife population in Côte d'Ivoire. For this purpose, 266 animals from nine different species, selected according to susceptibility and abundance, were captured and sampled from Comoé, Marahoué and Lamto Parks. Two hundred and forty seven sera and 214 nasal swabs were collected and analysed by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques, respectively. Serological data demonstrated that RPV was not circulating within the national Parks and estimated the PPR sero- prevalence to be less than 1%. The analysis of the nasal swabs revealed no cases of RPV infection, but PPRV infection was detected in four species, including buffalo. To minimise the cost of the study without affecting the sensitivity of the test, samples were pooled into different groups and submitted to...

In the early fourteenth century, annals, chronicles, correspondence, petitions, and poems all document severe mortalities of cattle in regions as distant as Mongolia and Iceland. Relevant passages from this literature are collected here and used with manorial accounts from England and Wales to illuminate a European cattle panzootic that spread west from central Europe c. , in the context of a widespread subsistence crisis (the Great European Famine), persisting in Ireland until c.

Long regarded as the major disease of cattle, rinderpest is now eradicated. It was inflicting from 60 to 90% mortality on livestock. Installed in Asia, it arrived in France in waves, but never became endemic there. Four outbreaks of rinderpest hit the country during the eighteenth century. Their geographical extension has been reconstituted. They forced the State to devise the consistent set of health actions the nineteenth century benefited before the advent of microbiology.

Ten goats were inoculated with peste des petits ruminants virus, a paramyxovirus closely related to rinderpest virus. All goats developed severe clinical disease, 8/10 having coughing or dyspnea as prominent clinical signs. In addition, all of the goats had stomatitis and diarrhea. Histopathologic and immunohistochemical studies were done only on the respiratory tracts. Pathologic changes ranged from mild multifocal bronchiolitis and bronchitis to severe bronchointerstitial pneumonia. Lesions were more severe in anteroventral than caudal lobes. The histologic nature of the viral process in the goat lungs had many features in common with the processes of pneumonia in dogs, due to canine distemper, or pneumonia in human beings, due to measles virus. Immunohistochemical staining of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded respiratory tract tissue was performed using an indirect system with rabbit anti-rinderpest virus serum, biotinylated anti-rabbit antibody, streptavidin-alkaline phosphatase...

This course explores African ideas of health and disease in the modern historical era (1500-Present) through a variety of human and animal diseases. The course repeatedly asks students to consider (and reconsider) why African societies articulate and promote health and disease models in ways distinct from and influenced by western societies. What factors determine this? How do these practices and ideas impact individuals, communities, and entire societies? How and why do ideas about health and disease change over time? What factors prompt change and how is change negotiated or challenged in the midst, for example, of new disease outbreaks?

Students will wrestle with these questions through a variety of texts focusing on many disparate health structures and disease environments. This course begins with a series of overviews about health and disease in the pre-colonial and colonial era. It assesses and explores how Africans attempt to manage their own health systems and manipulate them to changing circumstances. Therapeutics, medicinal treatments, disease management, and other topics will be used to lay the foundation to understand how the questions addressed in the above paragraph are applied to diseases like leprosy, cholera, HIV/AIDS , influenza, rabies, and rinderpest.

Wildlife mortality involving bongos, Tragelaphus eurycerus, and other ungulates was investigated in the north of the Congo Republic in 1997. Four bongos, one forest buffalo, Syncerus caffer nanus, and one domestic sheep were examined and sampled. Although an outbreak of rinderpest had been suspected, it was found that the animals, which had been weakened by an Elaeophora sagitta infection and possibly also by adverse climatic conditions, had been exsanguinated and driven to exhaustion by an unusual plague of Stomoxys omega.

With few exceptions, the diseases that present the greatest risk to food animal production have been largely similar throughout the modern era of veterinary medicine. The current trend regarding the ever-increasing globalization of the trade of animals and animal products ensures that agricultural diseases will continue to follow legal and illegal trade patterns with increasing rapidity. Global climate changes have already had profound effects on the distribution of animal diseases, and it is an inevitable reality that continually evolving climatic parameters will further transform the ecology of numerous pathogens. In recent years, many agricultural diseases have given cause for concern regarding changes in distribution or severity. Foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, and African swine fever continue to cause serious problems. The expected announcement of the global eradication of rinderpest is one of the greatest successes of veterinary preventative medicine, yet the closely ...

Non-academically trained practitioners of early modern veterinary medicine are still commonly described in decidedly unflattering terms; their practices often conceived of as folkloristic or otherwise static and unchanging. This article examines a group of such veterinary practitioners in the county of Flanders, known as cow masters. It argues that the medicine they practised was theoretically sophisticated and in line with contemporary mainstream medicine, while they made use of a variety of newly available chemical and exotic remedies. It is postulated that these newer remedies augmented the market for specialised practitioners, which has important implications for the history of medicine as a whole.

Vanaf 1769 tot ongeveer 1785 werden de Oostenrijkse Nederlanden, zoals vele Europese regio's, geteisterd door een hevige uitbraak van een veeziekte. Ondanks een opvallend doortastend overheidsingrijpen, zorgde deze ziekte voor een voortijdig overlijden van duizenden runderen. Zoals elke dramatische gebeurtenis trok ook deze epizoötie de aandacht van historici, maar ondanks enkele hoogstaande studies is er nog steeds onenigheid over de oorzaak van dit dierenleed. Mond- en klauwzeer, antrax, of runderpest? Aan de hand van een vooralsnog onontgonnen bron zal ik in dit artikel een antwoord wagen.

A simple chromatographic strip-test based on Clearview technology, is under development as a pen-side test for the detection of rinderpest antigen in eye swabs taken from cattle in the field. An outbreak of rinderpest occurred in the northern zone of Tanzania from late February to June 1997. The affected cattle exhibited very mild clinical signs, which made clinical diagnosis difficult. One hundred and seven eye swabs were collected from cattle suspected of infection with rinderpest. These were tested in the field using a prototype of the pen-side test and 13 (12.15%) of the samples were found to be positive for the presence of rinderpest antigen. These were confirmed by ICE. The positive cases were predominantly found in the Ngorongoro district. This demonstrates the usefulness of such a simple, rapid pen-side diagnostic assay, particularly when clinically 'mild' strains of rinderpest are present.

A severe epidemic of rinderpest, affecting mainly wild ruminants, occurred between 1993 and 1997 in East Africa. Buffalo (Syncerus coffer), eland (Taurotagus oryx) and lesser kudu (Tragelaphus imberbis) were highly susceptible. The histopathological changes, notably individual epithelial cell necrosis with syncytia formation, were consistent with an infection with an epitheliotrophic virus. Serology, the polymerase chain reaction, and virus isolation confirmed the diagnosis and provided epidemiological information. The virus was related to a strain which was prevalent in Kenya in the 1960s, of a second lineage (II), and distinct from isolations of rinderpest virus in the region since 1986. The source of the virus was presumed to be infected cattle from the Eastem region of Kenya and Somalia. The pathogenicity of the virus varied during the epidemic. The mortality in buffalo populations was estimated to be up to 80 per cent, and population data suggested that the virus had an adverse effect on a wide range of species. The virus caused only a mild disease in cattle, with minimal mortality. The results confirmed the importance of wildlife as sentinels of the disease, but although wildlife were important in the spread of the virus, they did not appear to act as reservoirs of infection.

 : Research in the Northern Province of South Africa has revealed a most surprising new rock art find : a painting of a camel. This paper investigates how and why a camel came to be painted in the remote rock art of the Makgabeng hills. Analysis of archival material allows one to attribute the painting to a Northern Sotho artist who was active in the first decade of the twentieth century. The purpose of the painting is revealed in its context ; it forms part of a collection of paintings which ridicule elements of ineptness in the ways of the new white intruders. We argue that this pointed humour helped the Makgabeng community to overcome some of the trauma of the displacement and violence which characterized the era of the first white settlement in northern South Africa.

In Chad, in 1993-1994, investigation into "peste des petits ruminants" (PPR) outbreaks were carried out in flocks of Sahelian goats. Although in the early 1993 outbreaks the virus had not been isolated yet, a serological prevalence (34%) was observed using ELISA test in 475 sera collected in the infested area. The virus was then isolated for the first time in Chad and typical PPR cases were observed in Sahelian goats, known to be little sensitive to the virus. To experimentally induce the disease, goats were inoculated with suspensions of lymph nodes or lungs, collected from sick animals. Lung suspensions induced the most serious symptoms. Suspensions of lungs and mesenteric lymph nodes were positive by agar-gel immunodiffusion test against PPR anti-serum, while prescapular lymph nodes remained negative. Characterization of the isolated virus, in particular with regard to its genomic identity, should be investigated.

Nigeria was declared provisionally free from Rinderpest (RP) disease in 1998 and vaccination against the disease was discontinued in the country since then. The Office of International des Epizooties (OIE) Scientific Commission approved the dossier on freedom from disease from Nigeria and issued the certificate to that effect on 25 th May, 2005. However, the presence and activities of RP virus in Nigeria are yet to be sufficiently ascertained. In this study, we have used slaughtered camels (Camelus dromedarius) that were never vaccinated against RP as sentinels to monitor the presence of the virus in Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty camel sera were tested for presence of RP and Pestes des petits ruminants (PPR) antibodies in a competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (c-ELISA). Of the sera tested, 20 (9.3%) were found to be positive for RP antibody. None of the sera tested positive for PPR antibody. Camels could serve as putative foci for the maintenance and spread of RP virus in this environment.

With few exceptions, the diseases that present the greatest risk to food animal production have been largely similar throughout the modern era of veterinary medicine. The current trend regarding the ever-increasing globalization of the trade of animals and animal products ensures that agricultural diseases will continue to follow legal and illegal trade patterns with increasing rapidity. Global climate changes have already had profound effects on the distribution of animal diseases, and it is an inevitable reality that continually evolving climatic parameters will further transform the ecology of numerous pathogens. In recent years, many agricultural diseases have given cause for concern regarding changes in distribution or severity. Foot-and-mouth disease, avian influenza, and African swine fever continue to cause serious problems. The expected announcement of the global eradication of rinderpest is one of the greatest successes of veterinary preventative medicine, yet the closely ...

Members of the morbillivirus genus, canine distemper (CDV), phocine distemper virus (PDV), and the cetacean viruses of dolphins and porpoises exhibit high levels of CNS infection in their natural hosts. CNS complications are rare for measles virus (MV) and are not associated with rinderpest virus (RPV) and peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) infection. However, it is possible that all morbilliviruses infect the CNS but in some hosts are rapidly cleared by the immune response. In this study, we assessed whether RPV and PPRV have the potential to be neurovirulent. We describe the outcome of infection, of selected mouse strains, with isolates of RPV, PPRV, PDV, porpoise morbillivirus (PMV), dolphin morbillivirus (DMV), and a wild-type strain of MV. In the case of RPV virus, strains with different passage histories have been examined. The results of experiments with these viruses were compared with those using neuroadapted and vaccine strains of MV, which acted as positive and negative controls respectively. Intracerebral inoculation with RPV (Saudi/81) and PPRV (Nigeria75/1) strains produced infection in Balb/C and Cd1, but not C57 suckling mice, whereas the CAM/RB rodent-adapted strain of MV infected all three strains of mice. Weanling mice were only infected by CAM/RB. Intranasal and intraperitoneal inoculation failed to produce infection with any virus strains. We have shown that, both RPV and PPRV, in common with other morbilliviruses are neurovirulent in a permissive system. Transient infection of the CNS of cattle and goats with RPV and PPRV, respectively, remains a possibility, which could provide relevant models for the initial stages of MV infection in humans. Journal of NeuroVirology (2002) 8, 45-52.

A cDNA clone containing the complete coding sequence of the rinderpest fusion protein (F) gene was inserted into the thymidine kinase gene of vaccinia virus (WR strain) under the control of the 7.5K early/late vaccinia virus promoter. All forms of the F protein, i.e., the glycosylated F0 precursor, the unglycosylated F1 protein, and the glycosylated F2 protein, were detected in cells infected with the recombinant virus. Vaccination of rabbits with the recombinant virus induced antibodies which reacted in an ELISA system specific for rinderpest. The rabbit sera contained neutralizing antibodies against rinderpest virus and precipitated the F protein from lysates of rinderpest infected cells. Rabbits vaccinated with the recombinant rinderpest F gene vaccinia virus were protected from a lethal challenge with the lapinized Nakamura 3 strain of rinderpest virus. Variations in the severity of clinical symptoms correlated with the level of anti-F protein antibodies produced.

In September 1800 the news of the presence in Tuscany of a bovine epidemic spread. A Deputation was established for its containment: the ban on foreign herds, the closing of the markets in countryside, the control, by the doctors Gaetano Palloni and Giovan Battista Canovai, of the meat which was introduced in Florence. In the "Medical Instructions on Bovine Epizootiy" attention was paid to prophylaxis, hygiene of stables, early symptoms of the disease and methods of treatment. Gaetano Palloni, an eclectic doctor, attentive to epidemiological and social aspects, wrote some reports, in which he proposed to examine all live animals introduced into the city and, after slaughter, on the product before the sale. The entry into the city was so limited, for beasts and meats, only to two Gates and the number of doctors assigned to examinations increased. During the winter the virulence decreased, but doctors warned that the danger was still present. "Additional medical instructions" were published in 1801, in which was recommended, at the first symptoms of the disease, the practice of draining blood through incisions. In August, the examinations were suspended, except in the case of overt illness. Palloni denounced the poor attention to inspections of freshly slaughtered meat, where often no immediate alteration was visible, suggesting the introduction of extraordinary random checks at the markets and in the warehouses, to prevent the sale of corrupt meat. Unfortunately, some proposals remained unfulfilled. Palloni’s reports, unpublished up to now, represent an interesting case of public hygiene at the beginning of the 19 century.

The authors provide a report on the surveillance of rinderpest virus (RPV) and peste des petits ruminants virus (PPRV) in the wildlife population in Côte d'Ivoire. For this purpose, 266 animals from nine different species, selected according to susceptibility and abundance, were captured and sampled from Comoé, Marahoué and Lamto Parks. Two hundred and forty seven sera and 214 nasal swabs were collected and analysed by competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) and reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques, respectively. Serological data demonstrated that RPV was not circulating within the national Parks and estimated the PPR seroprevalence to be less than 1%. The analysis of the nasal swabs revealed no cases of RPV infection, but PPRV infection was detected in four species, including buffalo. To minimise the cost of the study without affecting the sensitivity of the test, samples were pooled into different groups and submitted to RT-PCR usi...

The matrix (M) protein of paramyxoviruses forms an inner coat to the viral envelope and serves as a bridge between the surface glycoproteins (F and H) and the ribonucleoprotein core. Previously, a marker vaccine (RPV-PPRFH) was produced for the control of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) disease, where the F and H genes of Rinderpest virus (RPV) were replaced with the equivalent genes from Peste-des-petits-ruminants virus (PPRV); however, this virus grew poorly in tissue culture. The poor growth of the RPV-PPRFH chimeric virus was thought to be due to non-homologous interaction of the surface glycoproteins with the internal components of the virus, in particular with the M protein. In contrast, replacement of the M gene of RPV with that from PPRV did not have an effect on the viability or replication efficiency of the recombinant virus. Therefore, in an effort to improve the growth of the RPV-PPRFH virus, a triple chimera (RPV-PPRMFH) was made, where the M, F and H genes of RPV were replaced with those from PPRV. As expected, the growth of the triple chimera was improved; it grew to a titre as high as that of the unmodified PPRV, although comparatively lower than that of the parental RPV virus. Goats infected with the triple chimera showed no adverse reaction and were protected from subsequent challenge with wild-type PPRV. The neutralizing-antibody titre on the day of challenge was~17 times higher than that in the RPV-PPRFH group, indicating RPV-PPRMFH as a promising marker-vaccine candidate.

The peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is an acute and highly contagious, notifiable viral disease of sheep and goats that causes substantial morbidity and mortality. There are three cell culture-based live attenuated PPR vaccines available (one from an African isolate and two from Indian isolates). The PPR vaccine produced by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute has been extensively evaluated in the field and found safe and potent in sheep and goats in India. Diagnostic tests, such as the sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (s-ELISA), competitive ELISA, single and duplex reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCRs) and RT-PCR-ELISA at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute have also been validated on a large scale. Furthermore, the expertise that remained after the successful eradication of rinderpest in the National Project on Rinderpest Eradication can be utilised effectively for the eradication of PPR without much additional budgetary expense. Thus, the ...