For Poria Ole Suntai, a 70 year old cattle keeper in Isinya, the eradication of rinderpest from Kenya is the fulfillment of a lifelong wish: that his grandchildren will not live through an epidemic of the deadly viral disease, but only hear of past incidents as folk tales told by the fireplace.

About four decades ago, the disease that is known locally as ‘Oludwa’, struck the area, leaving destruction in its wake and devastating families to whom animals are the sole means of sustenance.

“Disease and drought are my biggest worries and I dread outbreaks because if I lose my animals then there is no way I can take care of my family,” says Ole Suntai, a cattle keeper who lost almost his entire herd in the outbreak in the 1970s.

Poria Ole Suntai herds his cows in Isinya, Kajiado. Two of his animals were vacinnated against rindepest during the last outbreak ten years ago. (Photo: FAO/T. Karumba)

During the last rinderpest outbreak the numbers of animals dying from the disease was overwhelming.

Besides, with the outbreak, export of animals as well as their products, was halted. “Because rinderpest is a transboundary animal disease, once the disease is confirmed in your country, you cannot export any meat or any livestock,” adds Dr Ricky Ireri, the head of Virology at the Veterinary Research Laboratories in Muguga.

Fortunately, all scientific evidence to date shows there is virtually no chance of recurrence of the experience that, history indicates, rocked Africa and other parts of the world between the eighteenth and twentieth century.

For many centuries, rinderpest caused massive losses to livestock keepers in European Russia and central Europe, with the most notable recent occurrence in the 1880’s. When it entered Africa in the late nineteenth century, it triggered widespread famine and decimated millions of heads livestock and wildlife.

Between 1980 and 1984, the estimated direct losses in Africa resulting from the disease were around $500 million, and indirect losses reached US$1 billion. Throughout the world, rinderpest caused the mass loss of draught animals used for ploughing rice and other staple crops.

Though the disease does not affect humans directly, it has been a major threat to food security and rural development. It is, thus, with a huge sigh of relief that Kenya has welcomed the news that the highly contagious disease has been eradicated. The disease was a threat not only to cattle, but also to wild mammals such as the buffalo, kudu, and giraffe.

According to Francis Gakuya, head of veterinary services at the Kenya Wildlife Service, rinderpest has high mortality and morbidity rates and any loss of wildlife affects tourism, which contributes up to 15 per cent of Kenya’s GDP.

Kenya was certified as free from rinderpest by the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) on May 28, 2009; and about a year later, on November 26, 2010, pastoralists, scientists, as well as representatives of national and international agencies congregated at Meru National Park to commemorate this extraordinary feat and officially declare Kenya free of the disease.

The choice of the park to host the ceremony was appropriate, considering that the last known occurrence of rinderpest was recorded there in 2001. The fact that pastoralists, like Ole Suntai, graze their animals close to and within national parks complicated the fight against rinderpest.

Kenya’s success in achieving this arose due to its involvement in the global push. Besides vaccine development, Kenya was at the heart of regional field activities that included mass vaccination of livestock and wildlife and zero surveillance.

The project coordinator in charge of livestock emergency interventions at the African Union’s InterAfrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), Dr Henry Wamwayi, says that the country’s geographical location in Eastern Africa, made it especially vulnerable to the disease, as well as  pivotal to the eradication program in Africa.

“That is where there is a vast majority of the cattle number on the African continent and the last cases of risk of rinderpest were in two of its neighbouring countries, Sudan and Somalia,” adds Dr Wamwayi, whose organization was involved in identifying and prioritizing rinderpest for the coordinated combating; in addition to mobilizing political support from the African head of states and governments and other public sector arms.

Kenya’s president Mwai Kibaki unveils the cast of a buffalo to commemorate the eradication of rinderpest at Meru National Park. (Photo: FAO/T. Karumba)

Global efforts to eradicate the disease, spearheaded by FAO’s Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP), are being wrapped up and set to undergo final reviews in 2011. Conflict remains a challenge for ongoing activities, since it makes livestock populations inaccessible.

“It is necessary to reach all these populations in order to ensure complete control and eradication of the disease,” says Dr. Wamwayi.

The global effort is geared towards ultimately eradicating the disease in keeping with a framework established by the OIE. This is only a few months from achievement, if all goes according to plan.

So far, the EU has invested Euro 340 million for the global eradication of rinderpest, out of which, at least 200 million were directed to Africa through the African Union. Besides its regular programme staff involvement in rinderpest eradication initiatives, FAO invested more than US$25 million. For FAO, the eradication of rinderpest from the face of the earth will be a major achievement, considering that this has been a key item on its agenda since inception in 1945.

A declaration of global eradication of rinderpest would mark the first time in history that humankind has succeeded in wiping out an animal disease in the wild, and only the second time, after smallpox in 1980, that any disease has been eliminated due to human efforts.

Listen to audio: Rinderpest Feature