1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,680 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:17,640 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Holly, You 4 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:21,000 Speaker 1: and I've been talking recently about how it feels weird 5 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,599 Speaker 1: to do topics that aren't somehow relevant to what's happening 6 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:29,920 Speaker 1: in the world right now, and yet also it feels 7 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 1: like it could become really fatiguing for us and for 8 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:37,360 Speaker 1: listeners to just be in a state of um dire 9 00:00:37,479 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: crisis all the time on the show. Yeah, I am. 10 00:00:42,479 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: It's making a subject selection a very weird process for 11 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:49,520 Speaker 1: me because I am like, on the one hand, Hey, 12 00:00:49,560 --> 00:00:51,680 Speaker 1: wouldn't it be nice to talk about something else and 13 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:57,280 Speaker 1: have an escape episode, right? And on the other Uh, 14 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:02,120 Speaker 1: it's hard to feel like you're doing justice to the 15 00:01:02,120 --> 00:01:06,479 Speaker 1: time we're living in by escaping it. Yeah, it's tricky. 16 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:09,080 Speaker 1: So we're in this weird place. We're trying to pick 17 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,600 Speaker 1: topics um that you know, folks will want to listen 18 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:15,040 Speaker 1: to you, because we understand people listen to our podcast 19 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: for fun, but at the same time, like the pandemic 20 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 1: is influencing our thought process and that is bringing us 21 00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:24,360 Speaker 1: to today's episode, which is another one that's inspired by 22 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:28,479 Speaker 1: this pandemic but not directly related to it. And also, 23 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: if you're just like man, I cannot deal with some 24 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:33,639 Speaker 1: more pandemic stuff right now. This is also a story 25 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: that has some traumatic stuff in the middle, but it's 26 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:42,360 Speaker 1: ultimately positive and hopeful because it involves the total eradication 27 00:01:42,400 --> 00:01:46,200 Speaker 1: of the disease in question. Back when we did our 28 00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:49,960 Speaker 1: episode on Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccine, we said 29 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,240 Speaker 1: that smallpox was the only disease to be eradicated through 30 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:58,160 Speaker 1: human activity. However, just two years before we recorded that episode, 31 00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:01,360 Speaker 1: a second disease had also been declared eradicated, and that 32 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: disease was render pest. Render pests eradication was so recent 33 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:09,360 Speaker 1: at that point that none of our sources referenced it, 34 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:11,519 Speaker 1: Like there were all these things that just very confidently, 35 00:02:11,600 --> 00:02:15,520 Speaker 1: even recently published things very confidently saying smallpox is the 36 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:18,680 Speaker 1: only thing to ever be eradicated, and at that point 37 00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: render pest also just had Also, Holly and I obviously 38 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: were both alive in eleven. This was not something that 39 00:02:27,320 --> 00:02:31,919 Speaker 1: really stuck with people when it was announced, inn unless 40 00:02:31,919 --> 00:02:34,800 Speaker 1: they had a personal or professional connection to it in 41 00:02:34,840 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: some way. For the most part, So this declaration that 42 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,680 Speaker 1: render pest had been eradicated was less than ten years ago. 43 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:44,600 Speaker 1: That's way more recent than the history we typically talked 44 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:47,720 Speaker 1: about on the show. But render pests history as the 45 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: disease goes back way farther than that obviously, and the 46 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: process of eradicating the disease really illustrates how it required 47 00:02:55,480 --> 00:03:00,000 Speaker 1: a very coordinated international effort to do it. Render pests 48 00:03:00,240 --> 00:03:02,640 Speaker 1: is caused by a virus in the genus more Bila virus. 49 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:06,200 Speaker 1: This genus includes other viruses that you may have heard of, 50 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: including human measles and canine distemper. There are more Billa 51 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: viruses that can infect marine life as well, including dolphins 52 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:18,360 Speaker 1: and whales, and render pest specifically has been around for 53 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:22,160 Speaker 1: a long time, perhaps as long as ten thousand years, 54 00:03:22,240 --> 00:03:25,440 Speaker 1: dating back to the first domestication of Oryx, which are 55 00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:29,600 Speaker 1: a now extinct type of wild ox in southwestern Asia. 56 00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,200 Speaker 1: Before its eradication, render past infected domestic animals like cattle, sheep, 57 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: and goats, as well as at least forty other hoofed mammals, 58 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:44,520 Speaker 1: specifically even towed ungulates like wild beast, antelope, deer, buffalo, 59 00:03:44,640 --> 00:03:48,720 Speaker 1: and giraffe. It did not infect human beings, although that 60 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:54,680 Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily always true. Render Past's nearest relative is human measles, 61 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:57,800 Speaker 1: and these two diseases appear to have diverged only about 62 00:03:57,800 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: a thousand years ago, so it's possible that before that 63 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,440 Speaker 1: point there was a strain of render pest virus that 64 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:07,960 Speaker 1: could infect both humans and hoofed mammals. The name render 65 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:11,480 Speaker 1: pest comes from the German word for cattle plague. It's 66 00:04:11,480 --> 00:04:14,840 Speaker 1: also been known as step muran murn being another word 67 00:04:14,880 --> 00:04:18,240 Speaker 1: for pestilence, and step coming from its prevalence in the 68 00:04:18,279 --> 00:04:22,159 Speaker 1: steps of Asia and southeastern Europe. It was known as 69 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:25,599 Speaker 1: Sadoca in some parts of Africa and Pushima on the 70 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:29,160 Speaker 1: Indian subcontinent, and at various points it has also been 71 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:33,120 Speaker 1: named for where affected communities thought the disease had come from. 72 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:36,720 Speaker 1: For example, in parts of seventeenth century Europe, people called 73 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: it the Russian disease because it was believed to have 74 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:42,560 Speaker 1: been introduced through cattle that were traded from Russia. Render 75 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:46,800 Speaker 1: Past was mostly spread through close contact among infected animals, 76 00:04:46,839 --> 00:04:50,240 Speaker 1: with the virus being present in their nasal, oral, ocular, 77 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:54,480 Speaker 1: and fecal secretions. Basically, if it made a secretion, there's 78 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: probably render pest in there. Infected dung could also contaminate 79 00:04:59,279 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: food and water sources and spread the disease that way. 80 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: It wasn't as common for things like pasture land to 81 00:05:06,360 --> 00:05:09,920 Speaker 1: become infected because the virus broke down in sunlight, so 82 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: it was gone from a sunny pasture in about six hours. 83 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 1: It could last a lot longer in more shady areas, though. 84 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: In terms of how the illness progressed after being exposed, 85 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:23,799 Speaker 1: animals went through an eight to eleven day incubation period 86 00:05:24,279 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: and then they would develop a fever. Early symptoms of 87 00:05:27,839 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: the acute illness included watery discharges from the eyes and nose, 88 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:35,559 Speaker 1: causing the animals to look like they were crying. From there, 89 00:05:35,600 --> 00:05:38,440 Speaker 1: they would develop intense diarrhea that lasted for a day 90 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:42,039 Speaker 1: or two. Animals could shed the virus for a couple 91 00:05:42,080 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: of days before developing symptoms, but they shed the virus 92 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:49,440 Speaker 1: in huge amounts once they had become visibly sick. Animals 93 00:05:49,480 --> 00:05:53,200 Speaker 1: that managed to survive this diarrheal stage typically recovered, and 94 00:05:53,200 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: they went on to have a lifelong immunity to render 95 00:05:56,040 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: past But most of the time it just wasn't survivable 96 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:03,719 Speaker 1: that irhea led to dehydration and death. A typical strain 97 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:06,160 Speaker 1: of render pest could cause a mortality rate of up 98 00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:11,640 Speaker 1: to nine and susceptible animals. There were some exceptions. Some 99 00:06:11,680 --> 00:06:14,080 Speaker 1: strains of the virus weren't as lethal, but they could 100 00:06:14,120 --> 00:06:18,039 Speaker 1: have other effects. For example, kudos, which are antelopes with 101 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: spiral horns, could survive milder forms of render pest, but 102 00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:25,640 Speaker 1: tended to develop blindness because the virus infected their eyes. 103 00:06:26,400 --> 00:06:29,960 Speaker 1: The Mongol Empires Asian gray step oxen tended to be 104 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:32,760 Speaker 1: resistant to the virus, but they were still able to 105 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: spread it to other animals. Although this virus may have 106 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:39,480 Speaker 1: existed for as long as ten thousand years, its presence 107 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,880 Speaker 1: and recorded history isn't quite that long. Cattle plagues of 108 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: various sorts are documented going back to about three thousand 109 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:50,280 Speaker 1: BC e in ancient Egypt, but a lot of those 110 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:53,920 Speaker 1: earliest descriptions don't match up with the symptoms of render past. 111 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:58,239 Speaker 1: The earliest historical accounts of what was probably render pest 112 00:06:58,320 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: took place in the Roman Empire between the years three 113 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:04,359 Speaker 1: seventy six and three eighty six, and then that disease 114 00:07:04,440 --> 00:07:08,080 Speaker 1: spread through the empire's war with the Goths. From there, 115 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 1: render pest outbreaks frequently followed in the wake of war. 116 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,280 Speaker 1: As we noted earlier, the Mongol empires Oxen spread the 117 00:07:15,320 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: illness to less resistant animals during the Mongol invasion of 118 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,960 Speaker 1: Europe starting in the thirteenth century. From there, armies that 119 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: used even towed ungulates as pack animals or food sources 120 00:07:27,120 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: carried render pest with them, or victorious armies unknowingly took 121 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: infected animals with them as spoils of war, thus spreading 122 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:37,880 Speaker 1: the disease to their own animals when they got home. 123 00:07:38,480 --> 00:07:42,000 Speaker 1: Render pest also followed trading routes, both through the trade 124 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:44,640 Speaker 1: of food animals and the use of pack animals to 125 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,920 Speaker 1: carry other trade goods. The spread of the disease in 126 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: this way really increased starting in about the seventeenth century, 127 00:07:51,640 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: as long distance trade involving livestock and pack animals became 128 00:07:55,680 --> 00:07:59,400 Speaker 1: more and more widespread. Even though render pest didn't directly 129 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,760 Speaker 1: infect human's the disease could still cause huge loss of 130 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 1: human life. Large render pest outbreaks could leave communities without 131 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:10,520 Speaker 1: their sources of meat or milk, with without the animals 132 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:13,280 Speaker 1: that they needed to cultivate the land without the dung 133 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:16,680 Speaker 1: that they needed to fertilize it, and without transportation to 134 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:20,360 Speaker 1: try to find other sources of food elsewhere. In seventeen 135 00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 1: o nine, a major render pest epizootics started in Europe. 136 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:29,200 Speaker 1: An epizootic is basically an epidemic, but involving non human animals. 137 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:32,520 Speaker 1: This lasted for decades and led to the deaths of 138 00:08:32,559 --> 00:08:36,360 Speaker 1: as many as two hundred million livestock animals in Europe. 139 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:39,600 Speaker 1: That also led to a lot of people studying the 140 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: disease and trying to figure out how to stop it spread. 141 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:47,319 Speaker 1: In seventeen eleven, Johan Canneld of Prussia noted that livestock 142 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,720 Speaker 1: that had survived render pest were resistant to later exposure. 143 00:08:51,520 --> 00:08:55,320 Speaker 1: That same year, Pope Clement the eleventh appointed physician Giovanni 144 00:08:55,360 --> 00:08:58,480 Speaker 1: Maria lun Cheesy to study render pest and try to 145 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:01,880 Speaker 1: find some way to control it. In seventeen fifteen, land 146 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:04,720 Speaker 1: Cheese published a treatise based on this work, which was 147 00:09:04,760 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: called De Baville Peste. In general, lynd Cheese's infection control 148 00:09:09,360 --> 00:09:14,439 Speaker 1: guidelines still hold up pretty well. He recommended restricting livestock movements, 149 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,480 Speaker 1: quarantining infected animals, slaughtering animals that had been exposed to 150 00:09:19,520 --> 00:09:22,880 Speaker 1: reduce the spread of the disease and burying the carcasses 151 00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:26,920 Speaker 1: in lime. He also recommended a number of general sanitation 152 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:31,960 Speaker 1: procedures and meat inspections. In the seventeen teens, the practice 153 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,400 Speaker 1: of variolation to prevent smallpox started to be used more 154 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:39,760 Speaker 1: frequently in Europe. Vary Elation was common in India, China, 155 00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:42,720 Speaker 1: and Africa before this point, but it became more widely 156 00:09:42,760 --> 00:09:45,080 Speaker 1: known in England and other parts of Europe thanks to 157 00:09:45,160 --> 00:09:48,920 Speaker 1: Lady Mary Worley Montague, whose husband had been ambassador to 158 00:09:48,960 --> 00:09:54,839 Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire. Vary Elation involved deliberately exposing someone to smallpox, 159 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:59,320 Speaker 1: often by inserting smallpox infected material through a puncture in 160 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,600 Speaker 1: their skin. There is more about this in our prior 161 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,120 Speaker 1: episode on Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccine. As the 162 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:10,320 Speaker 1: practice of variolations spread in Europe, people in both England 163 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,520 Speaker 1: and the Netherlands started trying to come up with a 164 00:10:12,559 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: similar method to do the same basic thing with render pest. 165 00:10:16,679 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: They were not successful at doing this, but while doing 166 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:24,760 Speaker 1: this research, fear Renders and Petros fun Campin realized that 167 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,760 Speaker 1: calves whose mothers had survived render pest were resistant to 168 00:10:28,800 --> 00:10:32,800 Speaker 1: their attempted inoculations. This is one of the first documented 169 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:37,480 Speaker 1: recordings of the idea of maternal immunity. In seventeen sixty one, 170 00:10:37,679 --> 00:10:41,400 Speaker 1: the world's first veterinary school was established in Lyon, France, 171 00:10:41,720 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 1: with one of its major objectives involving teaching veterinarians Giovanni 172 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,920 Speaker 1: Maria len Chiesi's methods of preventing render pest. We talked 173 00:10:49,920 --> 00:10:52,840 Speaker 1: about this veterinary school in our episode called a Brief 174 00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: History of Veterinary Medicine. Throughout all of this public health 175 00:10:56,920 --> 00:11:00,400 Speaker 1: practices for humans were being developed and refined mind in 176 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:03,719 Speaker 1: response to what people were doing with render pest and animals. 177 00:11:04,360 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: Aside from the idea of slaughtering exposed animals to prevent 178 00:11:07,960 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: the spread of the disease, most of the methods for 179 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:14,599 Speaker 1: controlling and epizooetic and animals also applied to an epidemic 180 00:11:14,679 --> 00:11:20,520 Speaker 1: in humans. This included establishing cordon sanitaire, or sanitary barriers 181 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:25,360 Speaker 1: around infected populations. The fight against render pest also involved 182 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:29,000 Speaker 1: the first use of thermometers to try to detect fevers 183 00:11:29,040 --> 00:11:32,400 Speaker 1: as part of an infection control regimen. In spite of 184 00:11:32,440 --> 00:11:35,880 Speaker 1: these advances, though some of the world's most devastating render 185 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:38,719 Speaker 1: pest outbreaks were still to come, and we're going to 186 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 1: talk about that after we first have a sponsor break. 187 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:52,319 Speaker 1: Although people had made important advancements and infection control and 188 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:55,800 Speaker 1: veterinary medicine leading up to the nineteenth century, the eighteen 189 00:11:55,880 --> 00:11:59,840 Speaker 1: hundreds saw some really devastating render pest outbreaks. We're going 190 00:11:59,920 --> 00:12:02,959 Speaker 1: to focus on just two of them in particular, but 191 00:12:03,040 --> 00:12:06,880 Speaker 1: the first in June of eighteen sixty five, render pest 192 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:10,680 Speaker 1: was reintroduced to the island of Great Britain. It affected 193 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:14,320 Speaker 1: livestock populations all over the island. All of the Highlands 194 00:12:14,360 --> 00:12:18,319 Speaker 1: and Islands of Scotland were mostly spared. The most likely 195 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:21,320 Speaker 1: source of the infection was cattle that had been imported 196 00:12:21,360 --> 00:12:24,920 Speaker 1: from Estonia. The British response to this outbreak was really 197 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:28,840 Speaker 1: not great. It had been more than a century since 198 00:12:28,920 --> 00:12:31,319 Speaker 1: render pest had been present on the island, so there 199 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:35,320 Speaker 1: was nobody there who had firsthand knowledge or memory of 200 00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:38,720 Speaker 1: what it looked like. And even though people knew that 201 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:42,000 Speaker 1: render pest was endemic in parts of continental Europe, there 202 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:45,199 Speaker 1: was this really weird sense, or maybe just wishful thinking, 203 00:12:45,760 --> 00:12:48,679 Speaker 1: that maybe this was some other disease instead and not 204 00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,440 Speaker 1: render pest. The ant contagion movement that we talked about 205 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:56,000 Speaker 1: in our recent episode on Maxifoon Pettenkofer was connected to 206 00:12:56,040 --> 00:12:58,160 Speaker 1: all of this as well, as people kind of questioned 207 00:12:58,160 --> 00:13:01,320 Speaker 1: whether like some pathogen could really be causing render pest. 208 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:04,760 Speaker 1: It wasn't until the end of July eighteen sixty five 209 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:08,480 Speaker 1: that the outbreak was officially confirmed as render pest and 210 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,200 Speaker 1: orders in council started to be issued to try to 211 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:15,439 Speaker 1: stop its spread. Those orders included ones that required people 212 00:13:15,480 --> 00:13:19,520 Speaker 1: to quarantine sick animals and to call potentially diseased livestock. 213 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,800 Speaker 1: But some of the orders who were also relatively vague 214 00:13:22,880 --> 00:13:26,200 Speaker 1: and contradictory, and they didn't have much enforcement power built 215 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: into them. Farmers, cattle traders and others who owned livestock 216 00:13:30,960 --> 00:13:34,480 Speaker 1: resisted calls to destroy their animals, and there was really 217 00:13:34,559 --> 00:13:38,280 Speaker 1: not a strong legal mechanism to address this. To add 218 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:44,160 Speaker 1: another complication, British physician Charles Murchison published a paper suggesting 219 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:48,000 Speaker 1: that necropsies of affected animals showed signs that were more 220 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:52,520 Speaker 1: similar to smallpox than render pest. The smallpox vaccine for 221 00:13:52,640 --> 00:13:55,960 Speaker 1: humans had been introduced in seventeen ninety six and the 222 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:00,000 Speaker 1: UK had made small packs vaccination mandatory in eighteen fifty three, 223 00:14:00,200 --> 00:14:03,520 Speaker 1: so people just latched onto the idea that what was 224 00:14:03,600 --> 00:14:07,080 Speaker 1: happening to the cattle might really be smallpox or something 225 00:14:07,120 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: similar instead of render pest, and a massive vaccination campaign 226 00:14:11,480 --> 00:14:14,640 Speaker 1: got under way in September of eighteen fifty five. That 227 00:14:14,760 --> 00:14:18,839 Speaker 1: same month, Queen Victoria authorized an additional prayer in which 228 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,800 Speaker 1: congregations of the Church of England would ask for God's 229 00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:24,680 Speaker 1: mercy and that he quote stay, we pray the this 230 00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:28,280 Speaker 1: plague by that word of power. Tens of thousands of 231 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:32,120 Speaker 1: cattle in Britain were vaccinated for smallpox between September of 232 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five and January of eighteen sixty six. So 233 00:14:36,760 --> 00:14:40,520 Speaker 1: many vaccines were administered that health officials ran out of 234 00:14:40,560 --> 00:14:43,880 Speaker 1: the lymph that was used to make them. Murchison and 235 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:48,680 Speaker 1: his supporters offered up various explanations for why vaccinated animals 236 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,000 Speaker 1: continued to get sick and die, when the real reason 237 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:55,000 Speaker 1: was that the disease that was at work was render pest, 238 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: not smallpox. Belgian Dr Lewis Villams had also developed a 239 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:05,840 Speaker 1: method of inoculating cattle against a different disease called contagious 240 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:10,560 Speaker 1: bovine plurin pneumonia has involved threading infected material through the 241 00:15:10,680 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 1: end of the animal's tail, and in the case of plurineumonia, 242 00:15:14,640 --> 00:15:17,200 Speaker 1: this made the animal immune to the disease, with the 243 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:20,880 Speaker 1: most serious side effect being potentially the loss of some 244 00:15:21,120 --> 00:15:23,560 Speaker 1: or all of the animal's tail. So people try to 245 00:15:23,600 --> 00:15:26,800 Speaker 1: do the same basic thing with render past that did 246 00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:29,720 Speaker 1: not work. It just spread the disease farther. In mid 247 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:34,200 Speaker 1: February of eighteen sixty six, the Cattle Plague Commission finally 248 00:15:34,240 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: announced that the smallpox vaccination effort was not working, and 249 00:15:38,320 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: they recommended the infection control and quarantine procedures that have 250 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: been developed back in the early seventeen hundreds. The Cattle 251 00:15:45,880 --> 00:15:49,800 Speaker 1: Disease Prevention Act was passed in February eighteen sixty six 252 00:15:49,920 --> 00:15:53,960 Speaker 1: and required the culling of infected herds, with some financial 253 00:15:53,960 --> 00:15:57,080 Speaker 1: compensation to people who lost their livestock as a result. 254 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:00,520 Speaker 1: It was not until eighteen sixty seven been that this 255 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:04,720 Speaker 1: outbreak was controlled. However, there was worse still to come. 256 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:07,640 Speaker 1: Less than twenty years later. What may have been the 257 00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:11,960 Speaker 1: biggest and most destructive render pest outbreak and history started 258 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 1: when the disease was introduced into Sub Saharan Africa for 259 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,600 Speaker 1: the first time. This was during the Scramble for Africa, 260 00:16:19,720 --> 00:16:23,920 Speaker 1: when European nations divided the African continent up among themselves, 261 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:28,280 Speaker 1: establishing and expanding their colonies there. In addition to all 262 00:16:28,280 --> 00:16:31,560 Speaker 1: the political, social, and human rights issues that we have 263 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:34,560 Speaker 1: talked about in a number of other episodes on the show, 264 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:39,520 Speaker 1: this also introduced and expanded European style farming and animal 265 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:43,920 Speaker 1: husbandry methods into the African continent. The likely source of 266 00:16:43,920 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: this outbreak was probably cattle that Italy had imported into 267 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:54,320 Speaker 1: Africa from the Indian subcontinent. Africa's indigenous people's already had 268 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: their own established methods of animal husbandry and veterinary care, 269 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,120 Speaker 1: but this was a disease African people had no prior 270 00:17:02,240 --> 00:17:06,840 Speaker 1: experience with, and their established practices either weren't effective or 271 00:17:07,040 --> 00:17:11,640 Speaker 1: they made the situation worse. Often, white farmers and ranchers 272 00:17:11,680 --> 00:17:14,800 Speaker 1: didn't have any personal experience with it either, and some 273 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:17,680 Speaker 1: of them assumed that what was happening was a unique 274 00:17:17,720 --> 00:17:21,399 Speaker 1: African illness rather than render pest, and this led some 275 00:17:21,480 --> 00:17:24,440 Speaker 1: of them to try Villam's tail inoculation that we talked 276 00:17:24,440 --> 00:17:28,359 Speaker 1: about a moment ago. Rather than culling their exposed herds. 277 00:17:28,880 --> 00:17:32,480 Speaker 1: After render pest was introduced into Sub Saharan Africa, as 278 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,679 Speaker 1: much as ninety percent of the domestic cattle there died. 279 00:17:37,280 --> 00:17:40,560 Speaker 1: The disease also spread to domestic sheep and goats, and 280 00:17:40,640 --> 00:17:44,879 Speaker 1: an infected wild buffalo, giraffes, wilde beests, and other animals. 281 00:17:45,560 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: In general, the major source of the disease spread was 282 00:17:49,240 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 1: domestic herd animals, spreading it to wild animals. The population 283 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:57,479 Speaker 1: density of wild animals, like will to be typically just 284 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:01,360 Speaker 1: wasn't enough to really keep the disease going. Other factors 285 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:05,160 Speaker 1: made the situation much worse, including droughts that led large 286 00:18:05,240 --> 00:18:09,199 Speaker 1: numbers of animals to cluster around watering holes, and warfare 287 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 1: among African nations. Many African herders were nomadic, which both 288 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,800 Speaker 1: spread the illness to other animal populations and made the 289 00:18:17,800 --> 00:18:22,119 Speaker 1: disease even harder to track. Plus, colonial governments tried to 290 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,800 Speaker 1: protect their own interests over those of local Africans, including, 291 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:30,800 Speaker 1: for example, destroying all the African own herds while leaving 292 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,600 Speaker 1: their own herds untouched, regardless of whether either of these 293 00:18:34,640 --> 00:18:38,800 Speaker 1: herds was showing signs of exposure. White farmers and ranchers 294 00:18:38,840 --> 00:18:41,920 Speaker 1: living in European colonies tried to protect their herds rather 295 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,160 Speaker 1: than calling them, including doing things like trying to hide 296 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:50,000 Speaker 1: evidence of a possible infection. Meanwhile, the colonized African people's 297 00:18:50,119 --> 00:18:55,679 Speaker 1: distrusted colonial efforts to stop the disease for obvious reasons. Basically, 298 00:18:55,880 --> 00:18:59,240 Speaker 1: all the various human populations in Africa at the time 299 00:18:59,560 --> 00:19:02,320 Speaker 1: were were king against one another, and that allowed the 300 00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:06,320 Speaker 1: disease to spread farther and then in many places, the 301 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,439 Speaker 1: devastation brought on by the outbreak made it easier for 302 00:19:09,560 --> 00:19:14,520 Speaker 1: European powers to exploit African people and resources. The result 303 00:19:14,600 --> 00:19:17,199 Speaker 1: of all this was known as the Great African render 304 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:21,600 Speaker 1: pest pan zootic, and a widespread famine followed in its wake, 305 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,439 Speaker 1: and many parts of Sub Saharan Africa, between half and 306 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:29,919 Speaker 1: two thirds of the human population died of starvation, diseases 307 00:19:29,960 --> 00:19:34,000 Speaker 1: are animal attacks, and many African nations, the entire social 308 00:19:34,080 --> 00:19:36,879 Speaker 1: order was up ended, both because of the massive death 309 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:40,560 Speaker 1: toll and because the cattle, which had represented wealth and 310 00:19:40,640 --> 00:19:44,720 Speaker 1: status in these societies had all died. The render past 311 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:48,359 Speaker 1: pan Zootic and colonial authorities response to it was also 312 00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:51,080 Speaker 1: one of the factors that led to the Second Matabili 313 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:55,240 Speaker 1: War in what's now Zimbabwe in eight six, the entire 314 00:19:55,359 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: ecosystem was disrupted In many parts of the African continent. 315 00:19:59,720 --> 00:20:03,720 Speaker 1: Grey using animals had kept grass under control. Without those 316 00:20:03,760 --> 00:20:07,359 Speaker 1: grazing herds, grass formed thickets, which became breeding grounds for 317 00:20:07,560 --> 00:20:11,560 Speaker 1: zi flies, which caused an epidemic of African sleeping sickness. 318 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:17,040 Speaker 1: Rodents and insects like locusts and caterpillars also flourished. As 319 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:21,000 Speaker 1: both domestic and wild animals died, predators lost access to 320 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:25,280 Speaker 1: their regular prey and started attacking people. In South Africa, 321 00:20:25,480 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 1: the Da Beers Company invited bacteriologist Robert Coke to Kimberly 322 00:20:29,920 --> 00:20:32,560 Speaker 1: to study the disease and to try to develop a vaccine. 323 00:20:33,240 --> 00:20:35,720 Speaker 1: By this point, it was well known that animals that 324 00:20:35,800 --> 00:20:38,439 Speaker 1: managed to recover from render pest were immune to the 325 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:42,280 Speaker 1: disease afterwards, So first Coke tried to use the blood 326 00:20:42,359 --> 00:20:46,080 Speaker 1: of recovered animals to make a vaccine. Although that did 327 00:20:46,119 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 1: provide a brief immunity, that immunity eventually faded, and the 328 00:20:49,840 --> 00:20:54,879 Speaker 1: method also had the potential to spread other blood borne diseases. Eventually, 329 00:20:55,040 --> 00:20:58,920 Speaker 1: Coke and veterinarian Arnold Filer developed a method of using 330 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,520 Speaker 1: bile from infect did animals. They got this idea from 331 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:05,159 Speaker 1: a method that farmers in the Orange Free State had 332 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:09,320 Speaker 1: developed that involved using sponges soaked in bile implanted under 333 00:21:09,359 --> 00:21:13,400 Speaker 1: the skin of livestock. Coke and Tyler's method involved killing 334 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,200 Speaker 1: an animal that was infected with render pest and then 335 00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,680 Speaker 1: harvesting enough bile to create an injection that could treat 336 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:23,600 Speaker 1: about twenty five healthy animals. This method was not totally 337 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:27,199 Speaker 1: fool proof, but it did seem to confer some immunity, 338 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:30,960 Speaker 1: and others in and around South Africa continued to refine 339 00:21:31,040 --> 00:21:34,240 Speaker 1: the formula and the method, along with the other infection 340 00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:37,159 Speaker 1: control methods that we've talked about earlier in the episode. 341 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:40,199 Speaker 1: This vaccine helped slow the spread of render pest on 342 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:46,600 Speaker 1: the African continent. However, the panzilotic lasted until about eight seven, 343 00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:51,560 Speaker 1: and then smaller scale episodics continued afterward. We're going to 344 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:54,919 Speaker 1: get to how the disease was eventually eradicated after we 345 00:21:55,000 --> 00:22:05,480 Speaker 1: take another quick sponsor break. By the start of the 346 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:11,160 Speaker 1: twentieth century, render pest outbreaks regularly threatened livestock, wild animals, 347 00:22:11,160 --> 00:22:14,600 Speaker 1: and people in various parts of Europe Africa, and Asia. 348 00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:18,399 Speaker 1: Many countries where render pest was not present had past 349 00:22:18,560 --> 00:22:21,439 Speaker 1: laws that banned the import of livestock or meat from 350 00:22:21,480 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: the places where render pest was endemic. In some cases, 351 00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:28,680 Speaker 1: countries also banned cargo ships that had carried livestock from 352 00:22:28,720 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: those countries. In spite of these kinds of precautions, render 353 00:22:32,280 --> 00:22:35,439 Speaker 1: pest was introduced in Brazil in nineteen twenty one and 354 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: in Australia in ninety three. Although it was quickly contained 355 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,000 Speaker 1: in both of those places, it might have been introduced 356 00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:45,840 Speaker 1: into North America at some point. If it was, it 357 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,720 Speaker 1: was contained so quickly that it's not really clear whether 358 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,439 Speaker 1: that was really what was happening or if it was 359 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:53,080 Speaker 1: something else. By this point, we knew a little more 360 00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:55,879 Speaker 1: about render pest than we had in the nineteenth century. 361 00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:00,080 Speaker 1: Maurice Nicol and Mustafa adile Bay had demonstrated that it 362 00:23:00,119 --> 00:23:03,640 Speaker 1: was caused by a virus in nineteen o two. Previously, 363 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:07,800 Speaker 1: people had thought that render pest was bacterial. In nineteen twenty, 364 00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: render pest was accidentally reintroduced into Belgium. The most likely 365 00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:15,880 Speaker 1: source for this was zebus from India that were being 366 00:23:15,960 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 1: sent to Brazil and had passed through Belgium on the 367 00:23:18,760 --> 00:23:22,080 Speaker 1: way there. From their render pest spread to other parts 368 00:23:22,160 --> 00:23:25,639 Speaker 1: of Europe that had previously been render pest free for decades, 369 00:23:25,720 --> 00:23:28,560 Speaker 1: and this led to an international effort to try to 370 00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:32,680 Speaker 1: eradicate the disease entirely. In the nineteen twenties, J. T. 371 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:37,120 Speaker 1: Edwards developed a vaccine using a technique called serial passage. 372 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,320 Speaker 1: This was similar to what Louis Pesteur and Emil Ru 373 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,040 Speaker 1: had done to develop a vaccine for rabies in eighteen 374 00:23:43,119 --> 00:23:47,800 Speaker 1: eighty five. For Edwards render pest vaccine, he used goats, 375 00:23:47,840 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: exposing one to render pest, allowing the disease to incubate, 376 00:23:51,680 --> 00:23:55,080 Speaker 1: and then using that incubated virus to infect the next goat. 377 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:58,439 Speaker 1: After doing this repeatedly, he had a strain of the 378 00:23:58,520 --> 00:24:01,439 Speaker 1: virus that was more adept it to goats than to cattle, 379 00:24:01,840 --> 00:24:05,120 Speaker 1: and then he used that virus to vaccinate the cows. 380 00:24:05,760 --> 00:24:09,880 Speaker 1: This method was fairly effective, but it did have some drawbacks. 381 00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,959 Speaker 1: It took a lot of goats and a lot of 382 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,640 Speaker 1: time to cultivate a strain of the virus that would 383 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,520 Speaker 1: work for this purpose, and then sometimes that strain would 384 00:24:17,560 --> 00:24:20,639 Speaker 1: revert back to being more lethal for the cattle. In 385 00:24:21,480 --> 00:24:24,800 Speaker 1: four during a render pest outbreak in France, the Office 386 00:24:24,840 --> 00:24:29,840 Speaker 1: Internacionale de Eposotes or o i E was established. It 387 00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,960 Speaker 1: would later become the World Organization for Animal Health and 388 00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,240 Speaker 1: it was a major part of the global effort to 389 00:24:35,240 --> 00:24:39,439 Speaker 1: stop render pest. In the nineteen fifties, veterinary scientist Walter 390 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:43,000 Speaker 1: Plowwright and his colleagues developed a new render pest vaccine. 391 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,200 Speaker 1: They used tissue cultures rather than cereal passage through living 392 00:24:47,280 --> 00:24:51,600 Speaker 1: goats to create an attenuated strain of the virus. They 393 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: patterned their work after research that was being done on 394 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:59,480 Speaker 1: a human measles virus vaccine. Their vaccine gave animals lifelong 395 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:02,600 Speaker 1: immunity against all known strains of render pest with just 396 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:07,679 Speaker 1: one injection. However, the vaccine had to be kept cold 397 00:25:07,760 --> 00:25:10,640 Speaker 1: from the time it was made to when it was administered, 398 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,040 Speaker 1: and this just wasn't feasible for a large scale global 399 00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:18,240 Speaker 1: vaccination campaign. Uh That was especially true in places that 400 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:22,919 Speaker 1: were very hot, very remote, or both. In nineteen fifty four, 401 00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:27,600 Speaker 1: India started its National render pest Eradication program, which vaccinated 402 00:25:27,680 --> 00:25:33,160 Speaker 1: twenty six million cattle every year. India soon went from 403 00:25:33,200 --> 00:25:36,720 Speaker 1: seeing thousands of outbreaks a year, which infected hundreds of 404 00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:40,640 Speaker 1: thousands of animals to more like three hundred outbreaks per year. 405 00:25:41,080 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 1: So this campaign definitely helped control render pest in India, 406 00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,440 Speaker 1: but it did not totally eradicate the disease there. People 407 00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:52,360 Speaker 1: had been trying to control render pest in Africa from 408 00:25:52,359 --> 00:25:55,080 Speaker 1: the time that it was introduced, but when it came 409 00:25:55,119 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: to a coordinated international effort to eradicate it completely, that 410 00:25:59,720 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: star did in nineteen sixty three. This effort was known 411 00:26:03,280 --> 00:26:07,400 Speaker 1: as Joint Project fifteen or JP fifteen, and it involved 412 00:26:07,440 --> 00:26:11,440 Speaker 1: twenty two different African nations, seventeen of which had ongoing 413 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,400 Speaker 1: render pest outbreaks. By the end of nineteen seventy nine, 414 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 1: Sudan was the only nation involved that was still reporting 415 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: cases of render pest. However, the dramatic reduction in render 416 00:26:22,640 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 1: pest had led to a sense of complacency as well 417 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 1: as a lack of funding, so the campaign ended without 418 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:33,439 Speaker 1: actually eradicating the disease, which then, of course resurged that 419 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,320 Speaker 1: happened dramatically in the nineteen eighties. To backtrack just a bit, 420 00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:41,200 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, a render pest outbreak in Afghanistan 421 00:26:41,359 --> 00:26:48,160 Speaker 1: spread to multiple other nations from there, including Bahrain, Iran, Jordan's, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, 422 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,120 Speaker 1: and Yemen. The pattern of render past being spread through 423 00:26:52,200 --> 00:26:56,440 Speaker 1: warfare continued as well, including through the Israeli and Syrian 424 00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,840 Speaker 1: armies in the nineteen seventies and through Indian troops and 425 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,119 Speaker 1: for Lanka in nineteen seventy eight. In the nineteen eighties 426 00:27:03,200 --> 00:27:06,920 Speaker 1: and nineteen nineties, tests were developed that detected both active 427 00:27:06,920 --> 00:27:11,320 Speaker 1: render pest infections and immunity to the disease. It was 428 00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:14,840 Speaker 1: also established that the antibodies passed from mother to offspring 429 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,480 Speaker 1: lasted for about eleven months. These discoveries made it possible 430 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:23,440 Speaker 1: to confirm whether animals were immune and to establish guidelines 431 00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:26,360 Speaker 1: for how old an animal should be before it was vaccinated. 432 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 1: International efforts to eradicate render pest continued from there. The 433 00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:35,320 Speaker 1: Pan African Render Past campaign began in nineteen eighty six 434 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:39,000 Speaker 1: under the auspices of the African Union Inter African Bureau 435 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:43,119 Speaker 1: of Animal Resources and People were also refining the render 436 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:46,560 Speaker 1: pest vaccine. At this point, Tufts University School of Veterinary 437 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:50,360 Speaker 1: Medicine and the US Department of Agriculture developed a vaccine 438 00:27:50,400 --> 00:27:54,600 Speaker 1: called thermovax in nine two. This vaccine had a thirty 439 00:27:54,680 --> 00:27:58,639 Speaker 1: day shelf life that did not require refrigeration during that time. 440 00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:03,880 Speaker 1: In for the U N Food and Agricultural Organization launched 441 00:28:03,920 --> 00:28:08,080 Speaker 1: its Global Render Pest Eradication Program it's g r EP 442 00:28:08,359 --> 00:28:11,640 Speaker 1: or GRIP. From the beginning, it's at a sixteen year 443 00:28:11,680 --> 00:28:15,720 Speaker 1: timeline for eradicating render pest. Although most of the funding 444 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:18,920 Speaker 1: came from European nations, most of the countries where render 445 00:28:18,920 --> 00:28:22,880 Speaker 1: pest outbreaks were still occurring were in Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, 446 00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:26,080 Speaker 1: and the Middle East. A critical part of the GRIP 447 00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: was working with community based animal health workers. These are 448 00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,679 Speaker 1: people who personally owned livestock and we're also selected by 449 00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:36,880 Speaker 1: their communities to be part of this program. They got 450 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,920 Speaker 1: trained in animal care program methods and vaccine administration, and 451 00:28:40,960 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: then they would take that knowledge back to their own communities. 452 00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 1: This is a totally different mindset from sending in veterinarians, academics, 453 00:28:48,880 --> 00:28:51,840 Speaker 1: and government officials from outside the community to try to 454 00:28:51,840 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 1: sort of impose a vaccine program. Much of this work 455 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,520 Speaker 1: involved figuring out which animals needed to be vaccinated to 456 00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,680 Speaker 1: have the greatest effect, because it wasn't always possible to 457 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:06,920 Speaker 1: vaccinate every animal. For example, in Ethiopia. Migratory herders moved 458 00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,840 Speaker 1: their cattle between the lowlands and the highlands depending on 459 00:29:09,880 --> 00:29:13,000 Speaker 1: the season, but there were also herds in the highlands 460 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:16,480 Speaker 1: that remained their year round. As it became clear that 461 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:19,720 Speaker 1: the migratory herds were carrying the disease to the highlands 462 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:23,560 Speaker 1: rather than contracting the disease from the highland herds, animal 463 00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: health workers focus their immunization efforts on eliminating the disease 464 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 1: from the migratory population. In the Food and Agricultural Organization 465 00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,520 Speaker 1: identified seven regions of the world that could act as 466 00:29:36,560 --> 00:29:40,040 Speaker 1: a reservoir for the virus. This included parts of Asia, 467 00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,600 Speaker 1: the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, and Eastern Africa. Eradication 468 00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,680 Speaker 1: efforts were tightly focused in these regions that in the 469 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:52,960 Speaker 1: f a O intensified the program under the slogan of seek, contain, 470 00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:57,440 Speaker 1: eliminate after a few outbreaks were connected to the weakened 471 00:29:57,480 --> 00:29:59,800 Speaker 1: form of the virus that was used in the vaccine. 472 00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:02,680 Speaker 1: The f a O also set standards for when to 473 00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:07,800 Speaker 1: stop vaccinating animals once immunity had been established. One by one, 474 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:10,880 Speaker 1: as nations had no new cases of render pests, they 475 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:15,280 Speaker 1: were declared render pest free. The last render pest outbreak 476 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:18,920 Speaker 1: on Earth was reported in Sudan in two thousand one. 477 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:24,080 Speaker 1: The last vaccination programs ended in two thousand six. Surveillance 478 00:30:24,120 --> 00:30:26,600 Speaker 1: to make sure the disease didn't recur continued for the 479 00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,600 Speaker 1: next few years until render pest was declared globally eradicated 480 00:30:30,760 --> 00:30:35,440 Speaker 1: on May eleven, ten years after the last outbreak. The 481 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:39,240 Speaker 1: United Nations has estimated that the total cost of eradicating 482 00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:42,920 Speaker 1: render pest, including all the money spent between ninety five 483 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:48,440 Speaker 1: and eleven, was five billion dollars. And articles about the eradication, 484 00:30:48,640 --> 00:30:51,400 Speaker 1: Dr Peter Rhoder, the Secretary of the f a O 485 00:30:51,560 --> 00:30:55,719 Speaker 1: Global Render Pest Eradication Program, was quoted as saying, quote, 486 00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,520 Speaker 1: at first I thought that's quite a lot. Then I 487 00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:01,720 Speaker 1: thought the last royal wedding and cost eight billion dollars. 488 00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: This was cheap. To be clear, I think the previous 489 00:31:08,520 --> 00:31:12,360 Speaker 1: royal wedding to this was was William and Kate. It 490 00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:15,600 Speaker 1: did not cost eight billion dollars, like even if you 491 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:19,760 Speaker 1: factor in, uh the total cost of things like the 492 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:23,360 Speaker 1: public holidays that were around the webbing like like the 493 00:31:23,560 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: super highest estimate that I've seen, including all those like 494 00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:33,760 Speaker 1: intangible side effects was like five billion dollars. The actual 495 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:36,320 Speaker 1: wedding cost was in the millions with an M, not 496 00:31:36,440 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 1: the billions with a B. But this is still a 497 00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:41,640 Speaker 1: great quote. Now I'm trying to think about what an 498 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,480 Speaker 1: eight billion dollar wedding would look like. And also, please, 499 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:48,560 Speaker 1: don't anyone spend eight billion dollars on a wedding. That's 500 00:31:48,640 --> 00:31:54,280 Speaker 1: just personal thought. In November of the O I E 501 00:31:54,360 --> 00:31:56,880 Speaker 1: and the f a O announced a global action plan 502 00:31:57,000 --> 00:32:00,400 Speaker 1: to prevent the re emergence of render pest. They basically 503 00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:02,880 Speaker 1: there are a lot of labs in the world that 504 00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,240 Speaker 1: still have samples of the virus or old vaccine stock. 505 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,640 Speaker 1: The organizations have called for safe destruction of these materials 506 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,360 Speaker 1: or transferred to an approved render pest holding facility to 507 00:32:14,480 --> 00:32:17,960 Speaker 1: prevent the risk of these viruses escaping or being released 508 00:32:17,960 --> 00:32:21,719 Speaker 1: through accident or criminal activity. Even though render pest and 509 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:26,200 Speaker 1: human measles are really closely related, they have some similar traits. 510 00:32:26,360 --> 00:32:30,160 Speaker 1: Measles is not anywhere close to being eradicated. It has 511 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:33,960 Speaker 1: been declared eliminated in some parts of the world. That 512 00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:37,640 Speaker 1: means that it is not being continuously transmitted among the 513 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:41,720 Speaker 1: population of those places anymore. But even nations where measles 514 00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:46,000 Speaker 1: has been eliminated, can continue to have outbreaks periodically, particularly 515 00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:50,640 Speaker 1: among unvaccinated people. However, there are two other diseases that 516 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,640 Speaker 1: are close to eradication, dracunculiasis or guinea worm disease with 517 00:32:55,640 --> 00:32:59,640 Speaker 1: fifty four reported cases in twenty nine and polio, which 518 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,560 Speaker 1: had ninety four reported cases in although that is a 519 00:33:03,600 --> 00:33:09,040 Speaker 1: significant increase over the total of thirty three cases. So 520 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:13,400 Speaker 1: that is a story of how render pest was eradicated 521 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,120 Speaker 1: from the planet. Hooray, it caused a lot of the 522 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:24,200 Speaker 1: devastation successful international eradication program. Yeah, uh, do you also 523 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:26,640 Speaker 1: have a little bit of listener mail for us? I do. 524 00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:28,640 Speaker 1: It is just a little bit of listener mail. It 525 00:33:28,720 --> 00:33:31,880 Speaker 1: is from Nick. Nick wrote about the discovery of insulin 526 00:33:31,920 --> 00:33:34,400 Speaker 1: and says, Hello, Tracy and Holly love the show. I 527 00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 1: just wanted to send a quick note on the two 528 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:40,160 Speaker 1: part series on insulin. As noted in the show, Frederick 529 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:43,880 Speaker 1: Banting and Charles Best were Canadian researchers. In twenty eleven, 530 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:47,080 Speaker 1: the Bank of Canada issued its first ever polymer bank 531 00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:50,200 Speaker 1: notes with the release of the Frontier series. The reverse 532 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,120 Speaker 1: of the hundred dollar notes celebrates Canadian doctors and scientists. 533 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:57,400 Speaker 1: Among the contributions depicted on the note is the discovery 534 00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,840 Speaker 1: of insulin. Uh. And then Nick all So included um 535 00:34:01,880 --> 00:34:06,080 Speaker 1: a link that gives this this three hundred sixty degree 536 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,640 Speaker 1: of view of what this like. You can spin it 537 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:11,920 Speaker 1: around in your browser window. Um. We don't have a 538 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:15,520 Speaker 1: great way to share links on our website currently, but 539 00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:18,480 Speaker 1: if I bet if you googled Bank of Canada hundred 540 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:21,440 Speaker 1: polymer note you you would get to it because that's 541 00:34:21,440 --> 00:34:24,560 Speaker 1: the name of the page there. Anyway, So, so thank 542 00:34:24,600 --> 00:34:28,280 Speaker 1: you so much. I I had no idea because uh 543 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,520 Speaker 1: you and I don't live in Canada, Holly so on 544 00:34:31,560 --> 00:34:35,600 Speaker 1: the convenian money right now. Um So, anyway, thank you 545 00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 1: Nick for that and for the link. And uh we 546 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,920 Speaker 1: hope everybody is, um just doing as well as can 547 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,120 Speaker 1: be expected in these times that we're living in. 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