Rinderpest, << RIHN duhr `pehst,` >> also called cattle plague, is a highly contagious, usually fatal disease of cattle and other members of the ox family. The disease is caused by a virus. Symptoms include sudden loss of milk in cows, fever, diarrhea, and ulcers in the mouth. The death rate is as high as 98 percent.
Rinderpest hindered the development of Western civilization for many hundreds of years. It swept over Europe from the East with every war. The last European outbreak occurred in Belgium following World War I (1914-1918). The disease never reached the United States and was chiefly confined to Asian countries. In 2010, the United Nations announced that a program of eradication (elimination) had completely wiped out rinderpest. Monitoring of the disease stopped throughout the world.
