The Only Human-Eradicated Animal Disease

Rinderpest was a lethal plague that killed nearly every infected animal it touched. Despite its historical devastation, it is one of only two infectious diseases ever successfully eradicated by human intervention.

This cattle plague wiped out entire herds for centuries, causing massive famines and economic collapse. Because it killed nearly 100 percent of infected animals, the global community worked together to create a widespread vaccination campaign. By 2011, the world was officially declared free of the virus. Only smallpox shares this unique status of being fully wiped off the face of the Earth.