Rinderpest

Rinderpest (also cattle plague or steppe murrain) was an infectious viral disease of cattle, domestic buffalo, and some other species of even-toed ungulates, including buffaloes, large antelopes and deer, giraffes, wildebeests and warthogs. After a global eradication campaign, the last confirmed case of rinderpest was diagnosed in 2001. The disease was characterized by fever, oral erosions, diarrhea, lymphoid necrosis, and high mortality. On 14 October 2010, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization announced that field activities in the decades-long, worldwide campaign to eradicate the disease were ending, paving the way for a formal declaration in June 2011 of the global eradication of rinderpest. On 25 May 2011, the World Organisation for Animal Health announced the free status of the last eight countries not yet recognized, and said a total of 198 countries were now free of the disease. On 8 August 2011, the United Nations held a ceremony declaring the disease eradicated, making rinderpest only the second disease in history to be fully wiped out, following smallpox.