Whose Vaccine Eradicated Rinderpest?

Rinderpest ("cattle plague") was a devastating viral disease of cattle and other ungulates that killed millions of animals over millennia. Major outbreaks in 18th-century Europe killed hundreds of millions of cattle and caused widespread famine. The 1890s rinderpest epidemic in Africa killed an estimated 90% of cattle on the continent and millions of wild animals, causing societal collapse in pastoral communities. British veterinary scientist Walter Plowright (1923-2010) developed an attenuated tissue culture vaccine in the 1960s at the East African Veterinary Research Organisation in Kenya. His vaccine was heat-stable, inexpensive, and effective with a single dose. The FAO Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP), launched in 1994, built on this vaccine. The last confirmed case was in Kenya in 2001, and the disease was officially declared eradicated in June 2011 — only the second disease after smallpox to be eliminated. Plowright was awarded the World Food Prize in 1999.