1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:03,279 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. 2 00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:07,119 Speaker 2: Since render pest came up in our recent episode on measles, 3 00:00:07,280 --> 00:00:09,959 Speaker 2: we have our episode on the eradication of render pest 4 00:00:10,039 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 2: is Today's Saturday Classic. This, of course, was recorded before 5 00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:17,000 Speaker 2: the research we talked about in the measles episode, which 6 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:20,560 Speaker 2: concluded that measles may have diverged from render pest as 7 00:00:20,560 --> 00:00:22,960 Speaker 2: long as twenty six hundred years ago. 8 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,800 Speaker 1: This episode also came out on April eighth of twenty twenty, 9 00:00:26,880 --> 00:00:30,200 Speaker 1: so just a few weeks into the COVID nineteen pandemic, 10 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:33,159 Speaker 1: during the period of stay at home orders and school 11 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: closures and travel bands, so it already feels like kind 12 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:39,559 Speaker 1: of an early pandemic time capsule day. You can tell 13 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:43,920 Speaker 1: it's totally consumed our entire consciousness. We sound shell shocked 14 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: with pandemic. 15 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:50,280 Speaker 2: And an update on the other eradication efforts that we 16 00:00:50,400 --> 00:00:52,960 Speaker 2: mention at the end of this episode. There were just 17 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 2: thirteen cases of dracunculiasis also called guinea worm disease in 18 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:03,320 Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and twelve confirmed cases of wild polio, 19 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:08,320 Speaker 2: but there has been an increase in cases of unvaccinated 20 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:12,120 Speaker 2: people contracting a strain of polio that mutated from the 21 00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:16,160 Speaker 2: ones used in oral vaccines. Even with that in mind, 22 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 2: the Global Polio Eradication Initiative now hopes to eradicate polio 23 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 2: by twenty twenty six. 24 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:30,880 Speaker 1: So enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, 25 00:01:31,120 --> 00:01:36,000 Speaker 1: a production of iHeartRadio. 26 00:01:39,319 --> 00:01:41,880 Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 27 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:43,800 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Fryan. 28 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:47,480 Speaker 2: Holly, you and I've been talking recently about how it 29 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 2: feels weird to do topics that aren't somehow relevant to 30 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:56,400 Speaker 2: what's happening in the world right now, and yet also 31 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,000 Speaker 2: it feels like it could become really fatiguing for us, 32 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:02,920 Speaker 2: send for listeners to just be in a state of 33 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,760 Speaker 2: dire crisis all the time on this show. 34 00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:12,919 Speaker 1: Yeah, I am. It's making a subject selection a very 35 00:02:12,960 --> 00:02:15,360 Speaker 1: weird process for me, because I am like, on the 36 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:18,440 Speaker 1: one hand, hey, wouldn't it be nice to talk about 37 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: something else and have an escape episode, right? And on 38 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: the other uh, it's hard to feel like you're doing 39 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:33,320 Speaker 1: justice to the time we're living in by escaping it. Yeah, 40 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:36,120 Speaker 1: it's tricky. So we're in this weird place. We're trying 41 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:39,720 Speaker 1: to pick topics that you know, folks will want to 42 00:02:39,760 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: listen to because we understand people listen to our podcast 43 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:44,920 Speaker 1: for fun, but at the same time, like the pandemic 44 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:48,920 Speaker 1: is influencing our thought process, and that is bringing us 45 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,760 Speaker 1: to today's episode, which is another one that's inspired by 46 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,840 Speaker 1: this pandemic but not directly related to it. And also, 47 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:57,840 Speaker 1: if you're just like man, I cannot deal with some 48 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: more pandemic stuff right now. This is also a story 49 00:03:01,120 --> 00:03:04,959 Speaker 1: that has some traumatic stuff in the middle, but it's 50 00:03:05,080 --> 00:03:09,720 Speaker 1: ultimately positive and hopeful because it involves the total eradication 51 00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:13,079 Speaker 1: of the disease in question. Back in twenty thirteen, when 52 00:03:13,120 --> 00:03:17,000 Speaker 1: we did our episode on Edward Jenner and the smallpox vaccine, 53 00:03:17,040 --> 00:03:19,640 Speaker 1: we said that smallpox was the only disease to be 54 00:03:19,720 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: eradicated through human activity. However, just two years before we 55 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:28,519 Speaker 1: recorded that episode, a second disease had also been declared eradicated, 56 00:03:28,520 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: and that disease was render Pest. Render Pest's eradication was 57 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:36,160 Speaker 1: so recent at that point that none of our sources 58 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: referenced it, Like there were all these things that just 59 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:42,680 Speaker 1: very confidently, even recently published things very confidently saying smallpox 60 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,560 Speaker 1: is the only thing to ever be eradicated, And at 61 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:50,840 Speaker 1: that point render Pest also just had also Colly and 62 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: I obviously were both alive in twenty eleven. This was 63 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:57,600 Speaker 1: not something that really stuck with people when it was 64 00:03:57,640 --> 00:04:00,640 Speaker 1: announced in twenty eleven unless they had a person or 65 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,320 Speaker 1: professional connection to it in some way. For the most part, 66 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,840 Speaker 1: so this declaration that render pest had been eradicated was 67 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:10,600 Speaker 1: less than ten years ago. That's way more recent than 68 00:04:10,640 --> 00:04:13,440 Speaker 1: the history we typically talk about on the show. But 69 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:16,679 Speaker 1: render Pest's history as the disease, goes back way farther 70 00:04:16,800 --> 00:04:20,719 Speaker 1: than that, obviously, and the process of eradicating the disease 71 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:25,760 Speaker 1: really illustrates how it required a very coordinated international effort 72 00:04:25,839 --> 00:04:28,600 Speaker 1: to do it. Render pest is caused by a virus 73 00:04:28,640 --> 00:04:32,719 Speaker 1: in the genus morbilivirus. This genus includes other viruses that 74 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: you may have heard of, including human measles and canine distemper. 75 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:41,040 Speaker 1: There are morbiliviruses that can infect marine life as well, 76 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:45,280 Speaker 1: including dolphins and whales, and render pest specifically has been 77 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:48,320 Speaker 1: around for a long time, perhaps as long as ten 78 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,119 Speaker 1: thousand years, dating back to the first domestication of Oryx, 79 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:55,320 Speaker 1: which are a now extinct type of wild ox in 80 00:04:55,400 --> 00:05:00,960 Speaker 1: southwestern Asia. Before its eradication, render pest and affected domestic 81 00:05:01,040 --> 00:05:04,240 Speaker 1: animals like cattle, sheep, and goats, as well as at 82 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:11,920 Speaker 1: least forty other hoofed mammals, specifically even towed ungulates like wildebeest, antelope, deer, buffalo, 83 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:16,120 Speaker 1: and giraffe. It did not infect human beings, although that 84 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:22,000 Speaker 1: wasn't necessarily always true. Render Pest's nearest relative is human measles, 85 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: and these two diseases appear to have diverged only about 86 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: a thousand years ago, so it's possible that before that 87 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:30,839 Speaker 1: point there was a strain of render pest virus that 88 00:05:30,960 --> 00:05:35,360 Speaker 1: could infect both humans and hoofed mammals. The name render 89 00:05:35,400 --> 00:05:38,840 Speaker 1: pest comes from the German word for cattle plague. It's 90 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:43,160 Speaker 1: also been known as stepmurin Meurin being another word for pestilence, 91 00:05:43,279 --> 00:05:46,240 Speaker 1: and step coming from its prevalence in the steps of 92 00:05:46,279 --> 00:05:50,359 Speaker 1: Asia and southeastern Europe. It was known as Sedoka in 93 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:54,160 Speaker 1: some parts of Africa and Pushima on the Indian subcontinent, 94 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,040 Speaker 1: and at various points it has also been named for 95 00:05:57,080 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: where affected communities thought the disease had come from. For example, 96 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:04,359 Speaker 1: in parts of seventeenth century Europe, people called it the 97 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: Russian disease because it was believed to have been introduced 98 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,479 Speaker 1: through cattle that were traded from Russia. Render pest was 99 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:14,479 Speaker 1: mostly spread through close contact among infected animals, with the 100 00:06:14,560 --> 00:06:19,799 Speaker 1: virus being present in their nasal, oral, ocular, and fecal secretions. Basically, 101 00:06:19,960 --> 00:06:23,600 Speaker 1: if it made a secretion, there's probably render pest in there. 102 00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,000 Speaker 1: Infected dung could also contaminate food and water sources and 103 00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:31,800 Speaker 1: spread the disease that way. It wasn't as common for 104 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,760 Speaker 1: things like pasture land to become infected because the virus 105 00:06:35,800 --> 00:06:38,279 Speaker 1: broke down in sunlight, so it was gone from a 106 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: sunny pasture in about six hours. 107 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:41,520 Speaker 2: It could last a. 108 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:44,720 Speaker 1: Lot longer in more shady areas, though. In terms of 109 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:48,840 Speaker 1: how the illness progressed after being exposed, animals went through 110 00:06:48,880 --> 00:06:52,240 Speaker 1: an eight to eleven day incubation period and then they 111 00:06:52,240 --> 00:06:56,159 Speaker 1: would develop a fever. Early symptoms of the acute illness 112 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,719 Speaker 1: included watery discharges from the eyes and nose, causing the 113 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:03,120 Speaker 1: animal to look like they were crying. From there, they 114 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:06,200 Speaker 1: would develop intense diarrhea that lasted for a day or two. 115 00:07:07,240 --> 00:07:09,920 Speaker 1: Animals could shed the virus for a couple of days 116 00:07:09,960 --> 00:07:13,800 Speaker 1: before developing symptoms, but they shed the virus in huge 117 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:15,960 Speaker 1: amounts once they had become visibly sick. 118 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:20,440 Speaker 2: Animals that managed to survive this diarrheal stage typically recovered 119 00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,000 Speaker 2: and they went on to have a lifelong immunity to 120 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:26,920 Speaker 2: render past, but most of the time it just wasn't survivable. 121 00:07:27,080 --> 00:07:31,120 Speaker 2: That diarrhea led to dehydration and death. A typical strain 122 00:07:31,200 --> 00:07:33,520 Speaker 2: of render pest could cause a mortality rate of up 123 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:36,320 Speaker 2: to ninety percent in susceptible animals. 124 00:07:36,840 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: There were some exceptions. Some strains of the virus weren't 125 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 1: as lethal, but they could have other effects. For example, koudoos, 126 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:48,320 Speaker 1: which are antelopes with spiral horns, could survive milder forms 127 00:07:48,320 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: of render pest, but tended to develop blindness because the 128 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:56,200 Speaker 1: virus infected their eyes. The Mongol Empire's Asian gray step 129 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,240 Speaker 1: oxen tended to be resistant to the virus, but they 130 00:07:59,280 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: were still able to spread it to other animals. Although 131 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:05,000 Speaker 1: this virus may have existed for as long as ten 132 00:08:05,080 --> 00:08:09,320 Speaker 1: thousand years, its presence in recorded history isn't quite that long. 133 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: Cattle plagues of various sorts are documented going back to 134 00:08:13,560 --> 00:08:17,320 Speaker 1: about three thousand BCE in ancient Egypt, but a lot 135 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: of those earliest descriptions don't match up with the symptoms 136 00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: of render past. The earliest historical accounts of what was 137 00:08:24,400 --> 00:08:27,800 Speaker 1: probably render pest took place in the Roman Empire between 138 00:08:27,840 --> 00:08:30,840 Speaker 1: the years three seventy six and three eighty six, and 139 00:08:30,880 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: then that disease spread through the empire's war with the Goths. 140 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:38,240 Speaker 1: From there, render pest outbreaks frequently followed in the wake 141 00:08:38,280 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: of war. As we noted earlier, the Mongol Empire's oxen 142 00:08:42,280 --> 00:08:45,720 Speaker 1: spread the illness to less resistant animals during the Mongol 143 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: invasion of Europe starting in the thirteenth century. From there, 144 00:08:49,880 --> 00:08:53,240 Speaker 1: armies that used even towed ungulates as pack animals or 145 00:08:53,320 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: food sources carried render pest with them, or victorious armies 146 00:08:58,240 --> 00:09:01,720 Speaker 1: unknowingly took infected animals with them as spoils of war, 147 00:09:02,240 --> 00:09:04,760 Speaker 1: thus spreading the disease to their own animals when they 148 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:08,959 Speaker 1: got home. Render pest also followed trading routes, both through 149 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:11,440 Speaker 1: the trade of food animals and the use of pack 150 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: animals to carry other trade goods. The spread of the 151 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:17,680 Speaker 1: disease in this way really increased starting in about the 152 00:09:17,760 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: seventeenth century, as long distance trade involving livestock and pack 153 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,960 Speaker 1: animals became more and more widespread. Even though render pest 154 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: didn't directly infect humans, the disease could still cause huge 155 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: loss of human life. Large render pest outbreaks could leave 156 00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:37,320 Speaker 1: communities without their sources of meat or milk, without the 157 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:40,360 Speaker 1: animals that they needed to cultivate the land, without the 158 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:43,839 Speaker 1: dung that they needed to fertilize it, and without transportation 159 00:09:44,040 --> 00:09:46,680 Speaker 1: to try to find other sources of food elsewhere. 160 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:50,959 Speaker 2: In seventeen o nine, a major render pest epizootic started 161 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:55,160 Speaker 2: in Europe. An epizootic is basically an epidemic, but involving 162 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 2: non human animals. This lasted for decades and led to 163 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,040 Speaker 2: the deaths of a as many as two hundred million 164 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,680 Speaker 2: livestock animals in Europe. It also led to a lot 165 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,800 Speaker 2: of people studying the disease and trying to figure out 166 00:10:08,880 --> 00:10:12,880 Speaker 2: how to stop it spread. In seventeen eleven, Johann Kennold 167 00:10:12,920 --> 00:10:16,199 Speaker 2: of Prussia noted that livestock that had survived render pest 168 00:10:16,280 --> 00:10:20,400 Speaker 2: were resistant to later exposure. That same year, Pope Clement 169 00:10:20,480 --> 00:10:24,959 Speaker 2: the eleventh appointed physician Giovanni Maria Lanchesi to study render 170 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 2: pest and try to find some way to control it. 171 00:10:27,960 --> 00:10:31,720 Speaker 2: In seventeen fifteen, Lanchesi published a treatise based on this work, 172 00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 2: which was called De Bavilla Peste. In general, Lanchiesi's infection 173 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:40,559 Speaker 2: control guidelines still hold up pretty well. He recommended restricting 174 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:46,160 Speaker 2: livestock movements, quarantining infected animals, slaughtering animals that had been 175 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:49,480 Speaker 2: exposed to reduce the spread of the disease, and burying 176 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:53,200 Speaker 2: the carcasses in lime. He also recommended a number of 177 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:58,599 Speaker 2: general sanitation procedures and meat inspections. In the seventeen teens, 178 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:02,240 Speaker 2: the practice of very elation to prevent smallpox started to 179 00:11:02,240 --> 00:11:07,160 Speaker 2: be used more frequently in Europe. Variolation was common in India, China, 180 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,120 Speaker 2: and Africa before this point, but it became more widely 181 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:12,439 Speaker 2: known in England and other parts of Europe thanks to 182 00:11:12,559 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 2: Lady Mary Warley Montague, whose husband had been ambassador to 183 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:22,239 Speaker 2: the Ottoman Empire. Variolation involved deliberately exposing someone to smallpox, 184 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:26,720 Speaker 2: often by inserting smallpox infected material through a puncture in 185 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,920 Speaker 2: their skin. There is more about this in our prior 186 00:11:30,040 --> 00:11:33,480 Speaker 2: episode on Edward Jenner and the smallpox Vaccine. As the 187 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,720 Speaker 2: practice of variolations spread in Europe, people in both England 188 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:39,880 Speaker 2: and the Netherlands started trying to come up with a 189 00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,720 Speaker 2: similar method to do the same basic thing with render pest. 190 00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:47,400 Speaker 2: They were not successful at doing this, but while doing 191 00:11:47,559 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 2: this research, Renders and Petros vun Campen realized that calves 192 00:11:53,040 --> 00:11:56,400 Speaker 2: whose mothers had survived render pest were resistant to their 193 00:11:56,480 --> 00:12:00,800 Speaker 2: attempted inoculations. This is one of the first document recordings 194 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,880 Speaker 2: of the idea of maternal immunity. In seventeen sixty one, 195 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,760 Speaker 2: the world's first veterinary school was established in Lyon, France, 196 00:12:09,120 --> 00:12:13,280 Speaker 2: with one of its major objectives involving teaching veterinarians Giovanni 197 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:17,560 Speaker 2: Maria Lenciesi's methods of preventing render pest. We talk about 198 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,680 Speaker 2: this veterinary school in our episode called a Brief History 199 00:12:20,720 --> 00:12:22,160 Speaker 2: of Veterinary Medicine. 200 00:12:22,200 --> 00:12:23,120 Speaker 1: Throughout all of. 201 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,960 Speaker 2: This public health practices for humans were being developed and 202 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:29,960 Speaker 2: refined in response to what people were doing with render 203 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,400 Speaker 2: pest in animals. Aside from the idea of slaughtering exposed 204 00:12:34,440 --> 00:12:37,240 Speaker 2: animals to prevent the spread of the disease, most of 205 00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:41,160 Speaker 2: the methods for controlling and epizootic and animals also applied 206 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 2: to an epidemic in humans. This included establishing cordon senataire 207 00:12:46,400 --> 00:12:51,320 Speaker 2: or sanitary barriers around infected populations. The fight against render 208 00:12:51,360 --> 00:12:55,160 Speaker 2: pest also involved the first use of thermometers to try 209 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:58,600 Speaker 2: to detect fevers as part of an infection control regimen. 210 00:12:59,160 --> 00:13:01,920 Speaker 1: In spite of these advances, though, some of the world's 211 00:13:01,960 --> 00:13:05,760 Speaker 1: most devastating render pest outbreaks were still to come, and 212 00:13:05,800 --> 00:13:08,000 Speaker 1: we're going to talk about that after we first have 213 00:13:08,080 --> 00:13:08,960 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. 214 00:13:18,760 --> 00:13:22,559 Speaker 2: Although people had made important advancements in infection control and 215 00:13:22,679 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 2: veterinary medicine leading up to the nineteenth century, the eighteen 216 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,240 Speaker 2: hundred saw some really devastating render pest outbreaks. We're going 217 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 2: to focus on just two of them in particular, but the. 218 00:13:33,480 --> 00:13:37,360 Speaker 1: First in June of eighteen sixty five, render pest was 219 00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 1: reintroduced to the island of Great Britain. It affected livestock 220 00:13:41,520 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: populations all over the island, although the Highlands and Islands 221 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,079 Speaker 1: of Scotland were mostly spared. The most likely source of 222 00:13:49,120 --> 00:13:52,439 Speaker 1: the infection was cattle that had been imported from Estonia. 223 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:56,480 Speaker 1: The British response to this outbreak was really not great. 224 00:13:57,160 --> 00:13:59,680 Speaker 1: It had been more than a century since render pest 225 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,240 Speaker 1: had been present on the island, so there was nobody 226 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:05,880 Speaker 1: there who had firsthand knowledge or memory of what it 227 00:14:05,920 --> 00:14:09,720 Speaker 1: looked like, and even though people knew that render pest 228 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:12,560 Speaker 1: was endemic in parts of continental Europe, there was this 229 00:14:12,679 --> 00:14:16,439 Speaker 1: really weird sense or maybe just wishful thinking, that maybe 230 00:14:16,480 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 1: this was some other disease instead and not render pest. 231 00:14:20,440 --> 00:14:22,960 Speaker 1: The anti contagion movement that we talked about in our 232 00:14:23,040 --> 00:14:26,600 Speaker 1: recent episode on maxivon Pettenkofer was connected to all of 233 00:14:26,640 --> 00:14:28,920 Speaker 1: this as well, as people kind of questioned whether, like 234 00:14:28,960 --> 00:14:32,480 Speaker 1: some pathogen could really be causing render pest. It wasn't 235 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,440 Speaker 1: until the end of July eighteen sixty five that the 236 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:39,440 Speaker 1: outbreak was officially confirmed as render pest, and orders in 237 00:14:39,520 --> 00:14:42,400 Speaker 1: Council started to be issued to try to stop it spread. 238 00:14:43,200 --> 00:14:46,760 Speaker 1: Those orders included ones that required people to quarantine sick 239 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,840 Speaker 1: animals and to cull potentially diseased livestock, but some of 240 00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:54,480 Speaker 1: the orders were also relatively vague and contradictory, and they 241 00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:58,760 Speaker 1: didn't have much enforcement power built into them. Farmers, cattle 242 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:03,600 Speaker 1: traders and others owned livestock resisted calls to destroy their animals, 243 00:15:03,680 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: and there was really not a strong legal mechanism to 244 00:15:06,880 --> 00:15:12,440 Speaker 1: address this. To add another complication, British physician Charles Murchison 245 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:17,320 Speaker 1: published a paper suggesting that necropsies of affected animals showed 246 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:20,440 Speaker 1: signs that were more similar to smallpox than render pest. 247 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,840 Speaker 1: The smallpox vaccine for humans had been introduced in seventeen 248 00:15:24,920 --> 00:15:29,200 Speaker 1: ninety six, and the UK had made smallpax vaccination mandatory 249 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:32,360 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty three, so people just latched onto the 250 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,920 Speaker 1: idea that what was happening to the cattle might really 251 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,640 Speaker 1: be smallpox or something similar instead of render pest, and 252 00:15:39,720 --> 00:15:43,240 Speaker 1: a massive vaccination campaign got under way in September of 253 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,400 Speaker 1: eighteen fifty five. That same month, Queen Victoria authorized an 254 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:50,960 Speaker 1: additional prayer in which congregations of the Church of England 255 00:15:50,960 --> 00:15:53,760 Speaker 1: would ask for God's mercy and that he quote, stay 256 00:15:54,080 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: we pray thee this plague by Thy word of power. 257 00:15:57,280 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of cattle in Britain were vaccinate for 258 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: smallpox between September of eighteen sixty five and January of 259 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:09,080 Speaker 1: eighteen sixty six. So many vaccines were administered that health 260 00:16:09,120 --> 00:16:12,040 Speaker 1: officials ran out of the lymph that was used to 261 00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: make them. Murchison and his supporters offered up various explanations 262 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,680 Speaker 1: for why vaccinated animals continued to get sick and die. 263 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:23,760 Speaker 1: When the real reason was that the disease that was 264 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,800 Speaker 1: at work was render pest, not smallpox. 265 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,680 Speaker 2: Belgian doctor Lewis Vellums had also developed a method of 266 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:37,680 Speaker 2: inoculating cattle against a different disease called contagious bovine plurineumonia. 267 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,280 Speaker 2: This involved threading infected material through the end of the 268 00:16:41,320 --> 00:16:45,320 Speaker 2: animal's tail, and in the case of plurineumonia, this made 269 00:16:45,320 --> 00:16:48,280 Speaker 2: the animal immune to the disease, with the most serious 270 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:51,640 Speaker 2: side effect being potentially the loss of some or all 271 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,160 Speaker 2: of the animal's tail. So people try to do the 272 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 2: same basic thing with render pest. That did not work. 273 00:16:57,480 --> 00:17:00,800 Speaker 2: It just spread the disease farther. In mid February of 274 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:05,080 Speaker 2: eighteen sixty six, the Cattle Plague Commission finally announced that 275 00:17:05,119 --> 00:17:09,359 Speaker 2: the smallpox vaccination effort was not working, and they recommended 276 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:12,880 Speaker 2: the infection control and quarantine procedures that had been developed 277 00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:17,000 Speaker 2: back in the early seventeen hundreds. The Cattle Disease Prevention 278 00:17:17,160 --> 00:17:20,879 Speaker 2: Act was passed in February eighteen sixty six and required 279 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:25,040 Speaker 2: the culling of infected herds, with some financial compensation to 280 00:17:25,080 --> 00:17:28,399 Speaker 2: people who lost their livestock as a result. It was 281 00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 2: not until eighteen sixty seven that this outbreak was controlled. However, 282 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 2: there was worse still to come. Less than twenty years later, 283 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,200 Speaker 2: what may have been the biggest and most destructive render 284 00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:44,280 Speaker 2: pested outbreak in history started when the disease was introduced 285 00:17:44,320 --> 00:17:46,879 Speaker 2: into Sub Saharan Africa for the first time. 286 00:17:47,680 --> 00:17:48,800 Speaker 1: This was during the. 287 00:17:48,760 --> 00:17:52,960 Speaker 2: Scramble for Africa, when European nations divided the African continent 288 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:57,639 Speaker 2: up among themselves, establishing and expanding their colonies there. In 289 00:17:57,680 --> 00:18:01,440 Speaker 2: addition to all the political, social, and human rights issues 290 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:03,720 Speaker 2: that we have talked about in a number of other 291 00:18:03,760 --> 00:18:08,159 Speaker 2: episodes on the show, this also introduced and expanded European 292 00:18:08,240 --> 00:18:12,160 Speaker 2: style farming and animal husbandry methods into the African continent. 293 00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,679 Speaker 2: The likely source of this outbreak was probably cattle that 294 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:22,560 Speaker 2: Italy had imported into Africa from the Indian subcontinent. Africa's 295 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:26,960 Speaker 2: indigenous peoples already had their own established methods of animal 296 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,120 Speaker 2: husbandry and veterinary care, but this was a disease African 297 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:35,359 Speaker 2: people had no prior experience with, and their established practices 298 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,160 Speaker 2: either weren't effective or they made the situation worse. Often, 299 00:18:40,440 --> 00:18:43,760 Speaker 2: white farmers and ranchers didn't have any personal experience with 300 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 2: it either, and some of them assumed that what was 301 00:18:46,359 --> 00:18:50,240 Speaker 2: happening was a unique African illness rather than render pest, 302 00:18:50,920 --> 00:18:53,520 Speaker 2: and this led some of them to try Villam's tail 303 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:56,640 Speaker 2: inoculation that we talked about a moment ago, rather than 304 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:01,160 Speaker 2: culling their exposed herds. After render pest was introduced into 305 00:19:01,200 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 2: sub Saharan Africa, as much as ninety percent of the 306 00:19:05,119 --> 00:19:09,440 Speaker 2: domestic cattle there died. The disease also spread to domestic 307 00:19:09,520 --> 00:19:14,359 Speaker 2: sheep and goats, and infected wild buffalo, giraffes, wildebeests, and 308 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,560 Speaker 2: other animals. In general, the major source of the disease 309 00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:23,359 Speaker 2: spread was domestic herd animals, spreading it to wild animals. 310 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 2: The population density of wild animals like wildebe typically just 311 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,600 Speaker 2: wasn't enough to really keep the disease going. Other factors 312 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:35,440 Speaker 2: made the situation much worse, including droughts that led large 313 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,440 Speaker 2: numbers of animals to cluster around watering holes and warfare 314 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:44,600 Speaker 2: among African nations. Many African herders were nomadic, which both 315 00:19:44,640 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 2: spread the illness to other animal populations and made the 316 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:52,399 Speaker 2: disease even harder to track. Plus, colonial governments tried to 317 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:57,040 Speaker 2: protect their own interests over those of local Africans. Including, 318 00:19:57,119 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 2: for example, destroying all the African owned he herds while 319 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,639 Speaker 2: leaving their own herds untouched, regardless of whether either of 320 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:08,439 Speaker 2: these herds was showing signs of exposure. White farmers and 321 00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:11,879 Speaker 2: ranchers living in European colonies tried to protect their herds 322 00:20:11,960 --> 00:20:15,040 Speaker 2: rather than calling them, including doing things like trying to 323 00:20:15,119 --> 00:20:19,720 Speaker 2: hide evidence of a possible infection. Meanwhile, the colonized African 324 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:25,919 Speaker 2: people's distrusted colonial efforts to stop the disease for obvious reasons. Basically, 325 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,520 Speaker 2: all the various human populations in Africa at the time 326 00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:32,919 Speaker 2: were working against one another, and that allowed the disease 327 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:37,160 Speaker 2: to spread farther and then in many places, the devastation 328 00:20:37,359 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 2: brought on by the outbreak made it easier for European 329 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,959 Speaker 2: powers to exploit African people and resources. The result of 330 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,800 Speaker 2: all this was known as the Great African render pest 331 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:51,879 Speaker 2: pan zootic, and a widespread famine followed in its wake. 332 00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:55,720 Speaker 2: In many parts of Sub Saharan Africa, between half and 333 00:20:55,840 --> 00:20:59,919 Speaker 2: two thirds of the human population died of starvation, disease 334 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,240 Speaker 2: are animal attacks. In many African nations, the entire social 335 00:21:04,359 --> 00:21:07,480 Speaker 2: order was upended, both because of the massive death toll 336 00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:11,440 Speaker 2: and because the cattle which had represented wealth and status 337 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:15,720 Speaker 2: in these societies had all died, the render passed panzootic 338 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:18,960 Speaker 2: and colonial authorities response to it was also one of 339 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:21,960 Speaker 2: the factors that led to the Second Matabili War in 340 00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:24,440 Speaker 2: what's now Zimbabwe in eighteen ninety six. 341 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,240 Speaker 1: The entire ecosystem was disrupted in many parts of the 342 00:21:28,280 --> 00:21:33,800 Speaker 1: African continent. Grazing animals had kept grass under control. Without 343 00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:37,600 Speaker 1: those grazing herds, grass formed thickets, which became breeding grounds 344 00:21:37,600 --> 00:21:41,840 Speaker 1: for sisiflies, which caused an epidemic of African sleeping sickness. 345 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:47,280 Speaker 1: Rodents and insects like locusts and caterpillars also flourished. As 346 00:21:47,320 --> 00:21:51,240 Speaker 1: both domestic and wild animals died, predators lost access to 347 00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:54,119 Speaker 1: their regular prey and started attacking people. 348 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:59,280 Speaker 2: In South Africa, the Deber's Company invited bacteriologist Robert Cooch 349 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:01,800 Speaker 2: to Kimberly to study the disease and to try to 350 00:22:01,840 --> 00:22:05,000 Speaker 2: develop a vaccine. By this point, it was well known 351 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,040 Speaker 2: that animals that managed to recover from render pest were 352 00:22:08,040 --> 00:22:11,679 Speaker 2: immune to the disease afterward, so first Coke tried to 353 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:15,560 Speaker 2: use the blood of recovered animals to make a vaccine. 354 00:22:15,640 --> 00:22:19,640 Speaker 2: Although that did provide a brief immunity. That immunity eventually faded, 355 00:22:19,840 --> 00:22:22,480 Speaker 2: and the method also had the potential to spread other 356 00:22:22,640 --> 00:22:28,399 Speaker 2: bloodborne diseases. Eventually, Coke and veterinarian Arnold Thyler developed a 357 00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:32,080 Speaker 2: method of using bile from infected animals. They got this 358 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,920 Speaker 2: idea from a method that farmers in the Orange Free 359 00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 2: State had developed that involved using sponges soaked in bile 360 00:22:38,760 --> 00:22:42,920 Speaker 2: implanted under the skin of livestock. Coke and Thyler's method 361 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:45,879 Speaker 2: involved killing an animal that was infected with render pests 362 00:22:46,160 --> 00:22:49,439 Speaker 2: and then harvesting enough bile to create an injection that 363 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:53,280 Speaker 2: could treat about twenty five healthy animals. This method was 364 00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,200 Speaker 2: not totally fool proof, but it did seem to confer 365 00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,639 Speaker 2: some immunity, and others in and around South Africa continued 366 00:23:00,680 --> 00:23:03,679 Speaker 2: to refine the formula and the method, along with the 367 00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,720 Speaker 2: other infection control methods that we've talked about earlier in 368 00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:09,879 Speaker 2: the episode. This vaccine helped slow the spread of render 369 00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:15,000 Speaker 2: pest on the African continent. However, the panzootic lasted until 370 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:21,000 Speaker 2: about eighteen ninety seven, and then smaller scale epizootics continued afterward. 371 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:23,920 Speaker 1: We're going to get to how the disease was eventually 372 00:23:23,960 --> 00:23:26,919 Speaker 1: eradicated after we take another quick sponsor break. 373 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:39,119 Speaker 2: By the start of the twentieth century, render pest outbreaks 374 00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 2: regularly threatened livestock, wild animals, and people in various parts 375 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 2: of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Many countries where render pest 376 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,000 Speaker 2: was not present had passed laws that banned the import 377 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:53,720 Speaker 2: of livestock or meet from the places where render pest 378 00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:58,000 Speaker 2: was endemic. In some cases, countries also banned cargo ships 379 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:01,399 Speaker 2: that had carried livestock from those trees. In spite of 380 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 2: these kinds of precautions, render pest was introduced in Brazil 381 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:08,640 Speaker 2: in nineteen twenty one and in Australia in nineteen twenty three. 382 00:24:08,920 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 2: Although it was quickly contained in both of those places, 383 00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:15,680 Speaker 2: it might have been introduced into North America at some point. 384 00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:18,680 Speaker 2: If it was, it was contained so quickly that it's 385 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:20,920 Speaker 2: not really clear whether that was really what was happening 386 00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:23,159 Speaker 2: or if it was something else. By this point, we 387 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,320 Speaker 2: knew a little more about render pest than we had 388 00:24:25,359 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 2: in the nineteenth century. Maurice Nicole and Mustafa Adilbay had 389 00:24:30,080 --> 00:24:32,719 Speaker 2: demonstrated that it was caused by a virus. In nineteen 390 00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:37,200 Speaker 2: oh two, Previously, people had thought that render pest was bacterial. 391 00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:42,520 Speaker 2: In nineteen twenty, render pest was accidentally reintroduced into Belgium. 392 00:24:43,040 --> 00:24:46,240 Speaker 2: The most likely source for this was zebus from India 393 00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,880 Speaker 2: that were being sent to Brazil and had passed through 394 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,399 Speaker 2: Belgium on the way there. From there, render pest spread 395 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,240 Speaker 2: to other parts of Europe that had previously been render 396 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,640 Speaker 2: pest free for decades, and this led to an international 397 00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,199 Speaker 2: effort to try to radicate the disease entirely. In the 398 00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:05,879 Speaker 2: nineteen twenties, J. T. Edwards developed a vaccine using a 399 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:09,920 Speaker 2: technique called serial passage. This was similar to what Louis 400 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,920 Speaker 2: Pest and Emil rou had done to develop a vaccine 401 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:17,480 Speaker 2: for rabies in eighteen eighty five. For Edward's render pest vaccine, 402 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,480 Speaker 2: he used goats, exposing one to render pest, allowing the 403 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,800 Speaker 2: disease to incubate, and then using that incubated virus to 404 00:25:24,880 --> 00:25:28,680 Speaker 2: infect the next goat. After doing this repeatedly, he had 405 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:31,159 Speaker 2: a strain of the virus that was more adapted to 406 00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,600 Speaker 2: goats than to cattle, and then he used that virus 407 00:25:34,640 --> 00:25:39,280 Speaker 2: to vaccinate the cows. This method was fairly effective, but 408 00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:41,800 Speaker 2: it did have some drawbacks. It took a lot of 409 00:25:41,800 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 2: goats and a lot of time to cultivate a strain 410 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,119 Speaker 2: of the virus that would work for this purpose, and 411 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:50,000 Speaker 2: then sometimes that strain would revert back to being more 412 00:25:50,119 --> 00:25:53,080 Speaker 2: lethal for the cattle. In nineteen twenty four, during a 413 00:25:53,119 --> 00:25:57,840 Speaker 2: render pest outbreak in France, the Office Internacionale de Eposotes 414 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:02,040 Speaker 2: or OIE was established. It would later become the World 415 00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:05,080 Speaker 2: Organization for Animal health, and it was a major part 416 00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,879 Speaker 2: of the global effort to stop render pest. In the 417 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:12,360 Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, veterinary scientist Walter Plowright and his colleagues developed 418 00:26:12,359 --> 00:26:16,480 Speaker 2: a new render pest vaccine. They used tissue cultures rather 419 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 2: than serial passage through living goats, to create an attenuated 420 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:24,560 Speaker 2: strain of the virus. They patterned their work after research 421 00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:28,000 Speaker 2: that was being done on a human measles virus vaccine. 422 00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:32,360 Speaker 2: Their vaccine gave animals lifelong immunity against all known strains 423 00:26:32,359 --> 00:26:37,119 Speaker 2: of render pest with just one injection. However, the vaccine 424 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,480 Speaker 2: had to be kept cold from the time it was 425 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,920 Speaker 2: made to when it was administered, and this just wasn't 426 00:26:42,920 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 2: feasible for a large scale global vaccination campaign. That was 427 00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:51,120 Speaker 2: especially true in places that were very hot, very remote, 428 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:55,680 Speaker 2: or both. In nineteen fifty four, India started its National 429 00:26:55,720 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 2: render Pest Eradication Program, which vaccinated twenty six alien cattle 430 00:27:01,119 --> 00:27:05,720 Speaker 2: every year. India soon went from seeing thousands of outbreaks 431 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,159 Speaker 2: a year which infected hundreds of thousands of animals, to 432 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:13,280 Speaker 2: more like three hundred outbreaks per year. So this campaign 433 00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,120 Speaker 2: definitely helped control render pest in India, but it did 434 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:21,160 Speaker 2: not totally eradicate the disease there. People had been trying 435 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:23,679 Speaker 2: to control render pest in Africa from the time that 436 00:27:23,720 --> 00:27:27,120 Speaker 2: it was introduced, but when it came to a coordinated 437 00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 2: international effort to eradicate it completely that started in nineteen 438 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:35,800 Speaker 2: sixty three. This effort was known as Joint Project fifteen 439 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:40,359 Speaker 2: or JP fifteen, and it involved twenty two different African nations, 440 00:27:40,680 --> 00:27:44,760 Speaker 2: seventeen of which had ongoing render pest outbreaks. By the 441 00:27:44,880 --> 00:27:47,960 Speaker 2: end of nineteen seventy nine, Sudan was the only nation 442 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,840 Speaker 2: involved that was still reporting cases of render pest. However, 443 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 2: the dramatic reduction in render pest had led to a 444 00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:57,640 Speaker 2: sense of complacency as well as a lack of funding, 445 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:02,880 Speaker 2: so the campaign ended without actually eradicating the disease, which then, 446 00:28:02,920 --> 00:28:06,480 Speaker 2: of course resurged that happened dramatically in the nineteen eighties. 447 00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:09,879 Speaker 2: To backtrack just a bit, in nineteen sixty nine, a 448 00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 2: render pest outbreak in Afghanistan spread to multiple other nations 449 00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:19,840 Speaker 2: from there, including Bahrain, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen. 450 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,280 Speaker 2: The pattern of render past being spread through warfare continued 451 00:28:24,280 --> 00:28:28,040 Speaker 2: as well, including through the Israeli and Syrian armies in 452 00:28:28,080 --> 00:28:31,439 Speaker 2: the nineteen seventies and through Indian troops in Sri Lanka 453 00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,160 Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy eight. In the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, 454 00:28:35,359 --> 00:28:39,640 Speaker 2: tests were developed that detected both active render pest infections 455 00:28:39,680 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 2: and immunity to the disease. It was also established that 456 00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:47,000 Speaker 2: the antibodies passed from mother to offspring lasted for about 457 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:51,400 Speaker 2: eleven months. These discoveries made it possible to confirm whether 458 00:28:51,440 --> 00:28:55,000 Speaker 2: animals were immune and to establish guidelines for how old 459 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,920 Speaker 2: an animals should be before it was vaccinated. International efforts 460 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:03,719 Speaker 2: to eradicate renderest continued from there. The Pan African render 461 00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:07,280 Speaker 2: Pest campaign began in nineteen eighty six under the auspices 462 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 2: of the African Union Inter African Bureau of Animal Resources 463 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 2: and people were also refining the render pest vaccine. At 464 00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,320 Speaker 2: this point, Tuff's University School of Veterinary Medicine and the 465 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 2: US Department of Agriculture developed a vaccine called thermovaxin nineteen 466 00:29:22,920 --> 00:29:26,800 Speaker 2: ninety two. This vaccine had a thirty day shelf life 467 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:30,520 Speaker 2: that did not require refrigeration during that time. In nineteen 468 00:29:30,600 --> 00:29:35,040 Speaker 2: ninety four, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization launched its 469 00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:39,880 Speaker 2: Global render Pest Eradication Program it's GRIP or g REP. 470 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,360 Speaker 2: From the beginning, it set a sixteen year timeline for 471 00:29:43,400 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 2: eradicating render pest. Although most of the funding came from 472 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 2: European nations, most of the countries where render pest outbreaks 473 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:54,120 Speaker 2: were still occurring were in Asia, Sub Saharan Africa, and 474 00:29:54,160 --> 00:29:57,280 Speaker 2: the Middle East. A critical part of the GP was 475 00:29:57,360 --> 00:30:01,280 Speaker 2: working with community based animal health workers. These are people 476 00:30:01,320 --> 00:30:04,840 Speaker 2: who personally owned livestock and were also selected by their 477 00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:08,160 Speaker 2: communities to be part of this program. They got trained 478 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,040 Speaker 2: in animal care program methods and vaccine administration, and then 479 00:30:12,040 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 2: they would take that knowledge back to their own communities. 480 00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:19,000 Speaker 2: This is a totally different mindset from sending in veterinarians, 481 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:22,720 Speaker 2: academics and government officials from outside the community to try 482 00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:25,960 Speaker 2: to sort of impose a vaccine program. Much of this 483 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,360 Speaker 2: work involved figuring out which animals needed to be vaccinated 484 00:30:29,400 --> 00:30:32,560 Speaker 2: to have the greatest effect, because it wasn't always possible 485 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:37,600 Speaker 2: to vaccinate every animal. For example, in Ethiopia, migratory herders 486 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:40,640 Speaker 2: moved their cattle between the lowlands and the highlands depending 487 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,320 Speaker 2: on the season, but there were also herds in the 488 00:30:43,400 --> 00:30:47,280 Speaker 2: highlands that remained there year round. As it became clear 489 00:30:47,320 --> 00:30:50,080 Speaker 2: that the migratory herds were carrying the disease to the 490 00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:53,600 Speaker 2: highlands rather than contracting the disease from the highland herds, 491 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,120 Speaker 2: animal health workers focused their immunization efforts on eliminating the 492 00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:02,360 Speaker 2: disease from the migratory population. In nineteen ninety six, the 493 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:06,680 Speaker 2: Food and Agricultural Organization identified seven regions of the world 494 00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:09,600 Speaker 2: that could act as a reservoir for the virus. This 495 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:13,120 Speaker 2: included parts of Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, 496 00:31:13,120 --> 00:31:17,400 Speaker 2: and Eastern Africa. Eradication efforts were tightly focused in these 497 00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:21,120 Speaker 2: regions that in nineteen ninety nine, the FAO intensified the 498 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:25,920 Speaker 2: program under the slogan of seek, Contain, Eliminate. After a 499 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,960 Speaker 2: few outbreaks were connected to the weakened form of the 500 00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:32,120 Speaker 2: virus that was used in the vaccine. The FAO also 501 00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,400 Speaker 2: set standards for when to stop vaccinating animals once immunity 502 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:40,080 Speaker 2: had been established. One by one, as nations had no 503 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:43,440 Speaker 2: new cases of render pest, they were declared render pest free. 504 00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:47,720 Speaker 2: The last render pest outbreak on Earth was reported in 505 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,920 Speaker 2: Sudan in two thousand and one. The last vaccination programs 506 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 2: ended in two thousand and six. Surveillance to make sure 507 00:31:55,560 --> 00:31:58,520 Speaker 2: the disease didn't recur continued for the next few years 508 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 2: until render pest was cleared globally eradicated on May twenty fifth, 509 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,880 Speaker 2: twenty eleven, ten years after the last outbreak. The United 510 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,880 Speaker 2: Nations has estimated that the total cost of eradicating render pest, 511 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 2: including all the money spent between nineteen forty five and 512 00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:19,320 Speaker 2: twenty eleven, was five billion dollars. And articles about the eradication, 513 00:32:19,560 --> 00:32:23,400 Speaker 2: doctor Peter Rhader, the secretary of the FAO Global Render 514 00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,560 Speaker 2: Pest Eradication Program, was quoted as saying, quote, at first, 515 00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:29,920 Speaker 2: I thought that's quite a lot. Then I thought the 516 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,600 Speaker 2: last royal wedding cost eight billion dollars. 517 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:33,480 Speaker 1: This was cheap. 518 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:40,160 Speaker 2: To be clear, I think the previous royal wedding to 519 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,960 Speaker 2: this was was William and Kate. It did not cost 520 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:49,360 Speaker 2: eight billion dollars, like, even if you factor in the 521 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,240 Speaker 2: total cost of things like the public holidays that were 522 00:32:52,400 --> 00:32:57,400 Speaker 2: around the West r Like, the super highest estimate that 523 00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:01,400 Speaker 2: I've seen, including all those like intenangible's side effects, was 524 00:33:01,520 --> 00:33:05,760 Speaker 2: like five billion dollars. The actual wedding cost was in 525 00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,120 Speaker 2: the millions with an M, not the billions with a B. 526 00:33:08,280 --> 00:33:09,880 Speaker 2: But this is still a great quote. 527 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,240 Speaker 1: Now I'm trying to think about what an eight billion 528 00:33:13,320 --> 00:33:16,200 Speaker 1: dollar wedding would look like. And also, please, don't anyone 529 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:20,000 Speaker 1: spend eight billion dollars on a wedding. That's just my 530 00:33:20,160 --> 00:33:25,120 Speaker 1: own personal thought. In November of twenty eighteen, the OIE 531 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:28,479 Speaker 1: and the FAO announced a global action plan to prevent 532 00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:32,520 Speaker 1: the reemergence of render pest. Basically, there are a lot 533 00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,160 Speaker 1: of labs in the world that still have samples of 534 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:39,360 Speaker 1: the virus or old vaccine stock. The organizations have called 535 00:33:39,400 --> 00:33:42,800 Speaker 1: for safe destruction of these materials or transfer to an 536 00:33:42,800 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: approved render pest holding facility to prevent the risk of 537 00:33:46,480 --> 00:33:50,920 Speaker 1: these viruses escaping or being released through accident or criminal activity. 538 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:55,400 Speaker 1: Even though render pest and human measles are really closely related, 539 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:59,240 Speaker 1: they have some similar traits. Measles is not anywhere close 540 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:03,320 Speaker 1: to being erratic. It has been declared eliminated in some 541 00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:05,880 Speaker 1: parts of the world. That means that it is not 542 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:10,400 Speaker 1: being continuously transmitted among the population of those places anymore. 543 00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:14,640 Speaker 1: But even nations where measles has been eliminated can continue 544 00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:19,879 Speaker 1: to have outbreaks periodically, particularly among unvaccinated people. However, there 545 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:24,959 Speaker 1: are two other diseases that are close to eradication, dracunculiasis 546 00:34:25,080 --> 00:34:28,120 Speaker 1: or guinea worm disease, with fifty four reported cases in 547 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,360 Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, and polio, which had ninety four reported cases 548 00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, although that is a significant increase over 549 00:34:36,200 --> 00:34:39,120 Speaker 1: the twenty eighteen total of thirty three cases. 550 00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,200 Speaker 2: So that is a story of how render pest was 551 00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:47,640 Speaker 2: eradicated from the planet. Hooray it caused a lot of 552 00:34:47,840 --> 00:35:00,680 Speaker 2: the devastation successful international eradication program. Yeah which for joining 553 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:03,480 Speaker 2: us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of 554 00:35:03,480 --> 00:35:05,440 Speaker 2: the archive, if you heard an email address or a 555 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,319 Speaker 2: Facebook RL or something similar over the course of the show, 556 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:09,960 Speaker 2: that could be obsolete. 557 00:35:09,960 --> 00:35:10,200 Speaker 1: Now. 558 00:35:10,640 --> 00:35:16,400 Speaker 2: Our current email address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. 559 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:20,000 Speaker 2: You can find us all over social media at missed Dhistory, 560 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:23,360 Speaker 2: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts, 561 00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:27,000 Speaker 2: Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen 562 00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:32,200 Speaker 2: to podcasts. Stuff you missed in History Class is a 563 00:35:32,239 --> 00:35:36,640 Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. 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