Question

What was Rinderpest?
A. A disease of cattle plagues that spread in Africa in the 1890s.
B. Bubonic plague which spread in the region of Maharashtra in the 1890s.
C. A type of cholera that spread in Assam in the 1890s.
D. A devastating bird disease that was imported to Italy from British Asia through chicken meat.

Answer 1

Hint: Rinderpest is caused by the Paramyxoviridae family virus of the genus Morbillivirus.
- The outbreak of Rinderpest originated in Afghanistan in 1969.
- The virus was transmitted through near direct or indirect contact. After an incubation period of three to nine days, fever and loss of appetite occurred in an infected person.

Complete Answer:
- Rinderpest – also known as the bovine pest – was a disease caused by the rinderpest virus, which mostly affected cattle and buffalo.
- Infected animals had symptoms such as fever, cuts in the mouth, diarrhoea, discharge from the nose and eyes, and finally death. Death rates during rinderpest outbreaks were extraordinarily high, up to 100% in especially susceptible herds.
- Though bovine pests did not infect humans, it seriously affected their livelihoods. Cattle pest outbreaks caused malnutrition and millions of deaths.
- The virus spreads by droplets, so that the animals are infected by inhaling the breath, secretions or excretions of sick animals. Rinderpest was a dead-end disease for wild herds because its low population density prevented the spread of the disease.
- Together with the production of a potent vaccine in 1960, the dead-end in wild herds played an important role in the eradication of the disease in 2011. It is the first—and still the only—animal disease to be eradicated.

The options are as follows:
Rinderpest is a disease of cattle plagues that spread in Africa in the 1890s. Thus, Option A is correct.
Bubonic plague which spread in the region of Maharashtra in the 1890s is called Bombay plague epidemic. Thus, Option B is also incorrect.
A type of cholera that spread in Assam in the 1890s is known as the Cholera Pandemic. Thus, Option C is incorrect.
HPAI Asian H5N1 is a devastating bird disease that was imported to Italy from British Asia through chicken meat. Thus, Option D is also not right.

Therefore, the right answer is Option A.

Note: During the 18th century, between 1709 and 1720, between 1742 and 1760, and between 1768 and 1786, Europe was especially seriously affected by rinderpest.
- The introduction, in 1994, of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Program (GREP) by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations led to the implementation of successful rinderpest control programmes in affected areas of the world.
- The last recorded outbreak of rinderpest occurred in Kenya in 2001.