Rinderpest is the second infectious disease, after smallpox, to have been eradicated. However, potentially infectious rinderpest virus material remains widely disseminated among research and diagnostic facilities across the world and poses a risk for disease recurrence should it be released.

Is rinderpest still around?

Rinderpest was declared eradicated in 2011, making it the first animal disease to be eliminated in the history of humankind.

Is rinderpest extinct?

On August 8, 2011, the UN declared rinderpest officially eliminated from the world, making it only the second disease in history after smallpox to vanish at our hands.