Rinderpest

Article By:

Roeder, Peter Agriculture Department, Animal Production and Health Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy.

Last reviewed:August 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.757368

An acute or subacute, contagious viral disease (now eradicated) of ruminants and swine, manifested by high fever, lachrymal discharge, profuse diarrhea, erosion of the epithelium of the mouth and of the digestive tract, and high mortality. Rinderpest, also known as peste bovine (French) and peste bovina (Spanish), was an economically serious, highly contagious disease of cloven-hoofed animals, both domesticated and wild, caused by a ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus of the genus Morbillivirus within the family Paramyxoviridae. The genus includes the viruses causing peste des petits ruminants (PPR, which affects sheep and goats), measles, canine distemper, phocine distemper (which affects pinnipeds), and disease in cetaceans. Rinderpest virus strains that existed in the field have been grouped by molecular characterization into three lineages. These are known as African lineages 1 and 2 and Asian lineage 3. See also: Animal virus; Canine distemper; Infectious disease; Measles; Paramyxovirus; Ribonucleic acid (RNA)

The content above is only an excerpt.