Rinderpest

Rinderpest

Viral disease killing cattle; mortality ~90%

Morbillivirus

Family of viruses including rinderpest, measles

Jan Ostroróg

1608 veterinarian who prescribed sulfur to combat miasma

Jean-Antoine Villemin

Proved TB was infectious; inspired rinderpest studies

Veterinary schools

Founded in 18th-century Europe to combat rinderpest

Fencing laws

British colonial policy restricting grazing in Africa

Dipping campaigns

Forced chemical treatments on livestock and humans

David Bruce

Discovered sleeping sickness pathogen (Trypanosoma brucei)

Tsetse fly

Vector for sleeping sickness; thrived post-rinderpest

Sleeping sickness

Deadly illness caused by T. brucei, colonial outbreak

Robert Koch

Conducted unethical sleeping sickness trials in Uganda

Atoxyl

Arsenic compound used in colonial “treatment” of sleeping sickness

Bugala Island

Koch’s sleeping sickness “research camp”

Herero & Nama genocide

German response to colonial destabilization post-rinderpest

World Organization for Animal Health

Set vet health standards post-rinderpest

Rinderpest eradication

Achieved globally in 2011, after smallpox

Maasai

East African people devastated by 1890s rinderpest outbreak

Bechuanaland

Site of British colonial culling and dipping campaigns

FAO’s Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme

Led global rinderpest vaccination and eradication efforts

French colonial doctors

Likely responsible for spreading HIV via reused needles during rinderpest-era campaigns