Driven to extinction

For just the second time in history, scientists are on the cusp of declaring that a devastating infectious viral disease has been wiped off the face of the planet. The first was smallpox, and this time it is rinderpest, an animal disease that has plagued cattle and related animals, and their human keepers for millennia. A disease once endemic throughout Eurasia and Africa has almost certainly been eradicated save for the Somali pastoral ecosystem that straddles the borders of Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia. And the latest field-surveillance results, now being reviewed by experts, suggest the virus is gone from there as well. If the absence of rinderpest can be conf irmed, it would be a remarkable achievement for the veterinary profession, probably the most significant achievement in its history.