India declared free of rinderpest

India is finally free of the dreaded rinderpest infection of livestock, thanks to efforts of over half a century. This is likely to improve export of animals and animal products from the country.

The achievement was endorsed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) at its recent meeting in Paris on the basis of a dossier submitted by India on August 22, 2005. The rinderpest-free status would be applicable from November 1, 2004.

Rinderpest, one of the deadliest animal diseases, is caused by an acute viral infection which affects the intestinal tract. Besides cows and buffaloes, it affects sheep, goats and pigs, wild buffaloes and blue bulls.

The first animal disease that the OIE has recognised as having been eradicated from India, has existed in the country since the ancient period. In the early 1950s, around 400,000 rinderpest cases used to be reported every year, resulting in the deaths of nearly 200,000 milch animals.

A National Rinderpest Eradication Programme was launched in 1955-56 in which cattle and buffaloes older than six months were vaccinated with Goat Tissue Virus Vaccine (GTV-Edwards Strain) developed in India.

After each round of mass vaccination, a follow-up drive was conducted to vaccinate the leftover and new-born animals. The mass vaccination continued for a decade.

Although this helped control rinderpest over vast areas of the country, the disease continued to survive along borders. Vigilance units and check posts were established for developing immune zones and for vaccinating bovines on livestock movement routes.

A revised National Project on Rinderpest Eradication (NPRE) was launched in 1990 with help from the European Union. By 1995, the incidence of this malady was reduced to one or two cases per million.

The NPRE followed the OIE norms in three stages "" provisional freedom from disease, freedom from disease, and freedom from infection.

After achieving the second stage for the entire country in November 2001, a rinderpest surveillance programme aimed at achieving the third and final stage was started. This programme was executed in three phases between November 2001 and October 2004.

From the early seventies, rinderpest tissue culture vaccine (Plowrite and Ferris strain from Africa) was used.

The latest initiative on rinderpest eradication was better focused, with emphasis on surveillance, and was in line with the Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme.