Canada had a role in the global eradication of the cattle disease rinderpest, which was announced earlier this week by the World Organization of Animal Health (OIE).
Speaking from the OIE meeting in Paris, Canadian chief veterinarian Brian Evans said research labs and scientists in Canada helped the international effort.
Rinderpest, also known as the cattle plague, is the second disease after smallpox to be wiped out by human intervention. It does not affect humans but has been at the heart of famine in Europe, Africa and Asia for centuries.
“Even though we never did suffer the reality of rinderpest within our susceptible animal populations, we in fact were very much involved over the past number of decades with research on the virus and had the virus within our containment laboratory reality,” Evans said.
He called the disease’s demise an historical event that has eliminated a scourge affecting animals and people since 367 BC.
“As an animal health community, we have achieved the first eradication, at the global level, of a major animal disease.”
Rinderpest was largely responsible for the formation of the OIE in 1924 when an outbreak in Belgium rallied international control efforts, said Evans. Canada is one of the OIE’s 178 member countries.
Canada continues to contribute to world animal health research based on the idea that prevention is the best protection against spread of disease into this country, Evans said.
