Indian Journal of Comparative Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases

Rinderpest with its devastating history on the livestock (LS) sector has a positive legacy in the creation of first veterinary school in Lyon, Paris, in 1762 and Indian Civil Veterinary Services in 1891. Rinderpest was also instrumental for the establishment of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE): The World Organization for Animal Health in 1924 in Paris. The research on rinderpest in India started with the establishment of Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory (IBL) at Mukteswar in 1893, now known as Indian Veterinary Research Institute. The disease caused serious destruction of large ruminants (cattle and buffaloes), small ruminants (sheep and goats) and pigs, adversely affecting LS production and cattle/buffalo-driven agricultural operations in Indian villages affecting crop production besides causing colossal losses to milk and meat production. In India, rinderpest was endemic from 1900 to 1950, and in its classical form, the disease caused 80–90% mortality among cattle and buffaloes. The new era in the fight to control rinderpest in India started with the development of attenuated goat tissue rinderpest virus vaccine in 1920 by J.T. Edwards, which protected animals from rinderpest for whole of their life. This vaccine was used universally to combat rinderpest in Asian, African and European countries. Subsequently, lapinised, avianised, lapinised-avianised viruses and rinderpest tissue culture vaccines were developed for usage, but it was rinderpest tissue culture vaccine that successfully replaced goat tissue rinderpest vaccine.

The National Rinderpest Eradication Programme (NREP) was launched in 1954 with mass vaccination campaign to create herd immunity in the cattle and buffalo population of India. Concerned by the persistence of the infection, despite nearly three decades of mass vaccination programme, the Government of India, in 1983, commissioned a Rinderpest Task Force, which called for the inception of a new revitalised national campaign, known as Operation Rinderpest Zero. The project was initiated with the assistance of European Union (EU) and Food and Agriculture Organization FAO) from 1992 to 1998, to obtain freedom from rinderpest infection following the OIE pathway with systematic focussed vaccination and surveillance programme. India adopted zonal approach and the states were grouped into four zones (A, B, C, D) based on the past incidence and risk assessment of rinderpest. With this systematic approach, India declared its territory free from rinderpest and “provisional freedom from rinderpest disease” for the whole country was achieved with effect from 1 March 1998. There had been a considerable reduction in the incidence of rinderpest over the different Five-Year development Plan periods following mass vaccination programme. The number of outbreaks, which were around 8000 and the number of deaths, which were about 2 lakhs per year prior to 1955, came down to zero levels in 1996. All the vaccinations against rinderpest after the “provisional freedom from rinderpest disease” were stopped throughout India from October 2000 onwards and the country entered to the next phase of sero-surveillance to detect the in-apparent virus activity in the LS population. India carried out sero-surveillance for a period of three consecutive years designated as 3 phases. The second stage of “Freedom from Rinderpest Disease” status for the country was granted by the OIE on 22 May 2004, whereas the third stage of “Freedom from rinderpest infection” status for the country was granted by the OIE on 25 May 2006. India adopted post accreditation system in the country which involved both active and passive surveillance programme till March 2011 with great success.

Eradication of rinderpest provided major economic benefits to the country and better prosperity to the LS sector farmers, and agriculture sector as a whole gained on account of the availability of bullock power during 1950s and 1960s before the advent of mechanisation of agriculture in India, subsequent to green revolution. The paper also describes salient achievement, lesson learnt from the eradication of rinderpest as well as major events of rinderpest eradication in India.