Rinderpest

What is rinderpest?

Rinderpest, also known as cattle plague, is a contagious viral disease affecting mainly cattle and water buffalo.

Classical signs of the disease include:

• dehydration;
• diarrhea;
• discharge from the nose and eyes;
• erosive lesions in the mouth; and
• fever.

The mortality rate can reach 100 per cent in a susceptible cattle herd.

Other species of wild and domestic cloven-footed animals, including sheep and goats, may show milder symptoms of the disease if infected.

Is rinderpest a risk to human health?

No. There is no human health risk associated with rinderpest.

What are the clinical signs of rinderpest?

Immediate clinical signs include:

• a sudden onset of fever accompanied by depression;
• loss of appetite; and
• watery nasal and eye discharge.

On the second or third day of the fever the following can be seen:

• nasal and eye discharge that becomes more profuse, thick and white or yellow;
• erosions in the mouth, the lining of the nose and other mucous membranes;
• foul-smelling breath caused by the lesions in the mouth; and
• profuse diarrhea starting two or three days after the onset of mouth lesions, resulting in weakness and dehydration.

Most animals die 6 to 12 days after the onset of clinical signs.

Where is rinderpest found?

Historically, rinderpest occurred widely throughout Europe, Africa, Asia and West Asia, but never became established in either the Americas or Australia and New Zealand.

Throughout the 1980s, massive vaccination campaigns against rinderpest in Africa and Asia occurred under the Food and Agriculture Organization's Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme. Today, vaccination has largely ceased so that localized reservoirs of the disease can be eliminated.

How is rinderpest transmitted and spread?

Rinderpest is usually transmitted by contact with secretions and excretions from infected animals, particularly through nasal discharge. The virus is found in expired air, nasal and eye discharge, saliva, feces, urine and milk. Animals become infected when they inhale aerosolized particles that contain the virus. Infection spreads to new areas and herds mainly by the movement of infected animals.

Animals that recover from rinderpest have a solid immunity to the disease and there is no known chronic carrier state. Indirect transmission by contaminated clothing, equipment, meat and animal products is unlikely because the virus does not persist in environments outside of a live animal.

How is rinderpest diagnosed?

Rinderpest may be suspected based on the above clinical signs. Laboratory testing of blood and tissue samples from affected animals is necessary to confirm the diagnosis.

How is rinderpest treated?

There is no treatment for animals infected with rinderpest. Vaccination has been successfully used as part of a global eradication program in countries where the disease is present and in those countries trading with, or geographically close to, infected countries.

What is done to protect Canadian livestock from rinderpest?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) imposes strict regulations on the import of animals and animal products from countries where rinderpest is known to occur. These regulations are enforced through port-of-entry inspections done either by the Canada Border Services Agency or the CFIA.

Rinderpest is a "reportable disease" under the Health of Animals Act. This means that all suspected cases must be reported to the CFIA for immediate investigation by inspectors.

How would the CFIA respond to an outbreak of rinderpest in Canada?

Canada's emergency response strategy to an outbreak of rinderpest would be to:

• eradicate the disease; and
• re-establish Canada's disease-free status as quickly as possible.

In an effort to eradicate rinderpest, the CFIA would use its "stamping out" policy, which includes:

• humane destruction of all infected and exposed animals;
• surveillance and tracing of potentially infected or exposed animals;
• quarantine and animal movement controls to prevent spread;
• decontamination of infected premises; and
• zoning to define infected and disease-free areas.

Owners whose animals are ordered destroyed may be eligible for compensation.

For more information

Contact your CFIA Area office:

Atlantic Area: 506-851-7651

Quebec Area: 514-283-8888

Ontario Area: 519-837-9400

Western Area: 403-292-4301

You can find your local CFIA District office on the CFIA Web site or by consulting the blue pages of your local phone directory.