# Rinderpest in Somalia: the last stand of cattle plague

> How rinderpest was eradicated from Somalia: the Somali ecosystem, the mild strain, vaccination and testing from 1996 to 2009, SERECU, the 2010 recognition and the 2011 global declaration.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/economy/rinderpest-in-somalia/
Last checked: 2026-11-13
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## What rinderpest was

Rinderpest was a viral disease of cattle, buffalo and other cloven-hoofed animals that killed huge numbers of animals across Africa, Asia and Europe. On 25 May 2011 the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE, now WOAH) recognised the last eight countries as free, and the FAO followed in June 2011, making it the second disease in history wiped out after smallpox ([WOAH, Rinderpest](https://www.woah.org/en/disease/rinderpest/)).

## The Somali ecosystem

The disease's last refuge was the **Somali ecosystem**: south-eastern Ethiopia, north-eastern Kenya and Somalia. It was the last place rinderpest was diagnosed, in **2001**, in the part of the ecosystem inside Kenya ([FAO, EMPRES Transboundary Animal Diseases Bulletin 38, 2011](https://fao.org/docrep/014/i2259e/i2259e00.pdf)).

A mild form of the virus was found in Tsavo East National Park in Kenya in 1994. Genetic tests showed it belonged to the "African type 2" lineage, and experts suspected it had circulated unseen in north-eastern Kenya and the Trans [Juba](/en/economy/farming-and-harvests/) area of southern Somalia (same source). Because the mild strain caused few clear signs, it was hard to find.

## The work inside Somalia

After 1991, rinderpest was a target of the livestock vaccination and veterinary training that aid agencies ran in Somalia. The Italian NGO **Terra Nuova**, one of 12 international NGOs in the programme, trained Somali vets and later worked in **[Gedo](/en/regions/gedo/), Lower Juba and Middle Juba**, the regions suspected of holding the last cases ([FAO, EMPRES 38](https://fao.org/docrep/014/i2259e/i2259e00.pdf)).

Its work from 1996 to 2009, as described in the bulletin:

- Searching for disease, including asking herders what they had seen.
- **1,608 sites** sampled in random surveys from September 2002 to November 2007, mostly in central and southern Somalia, with **28,700 blood samples**, nearly all from cattle and 97 from warthogs.
- **1,425 specimens** taken to test for the virus, and more than **1,300 questionnaires** answered by herders.
- Vaccination of cattle at risk with a heat-stable vaccine from the Botswana Vaccine Institute, by trained Somali teams.
- Training Somali vets and building links with local authorities and later the Somali Veterinary Authority.

The bulletin is dedicated in part to **Manmohan Bogal**, killed while supervising a rinderpest vaccination campaign in Gedo on 26 January 1999.

## Freedom

The Somali Ecosystem Rinderpest Eradication Coordination Unit (**SERECU**) linked the vets of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia from January 2006 to December 2010, with money from the African Union's PACE programme, FAO, AU-IBAR and the EU ([FAO, EMPRES 38](https://fao.org/docrep/014/i2259e/i2259e00.pdf)). The data gathered went into the dossier of the Somali Veterinary Authority, and the OIE recognised **Somalia as officially free from rinderpest in 2010** (same source).

## Related pages

- [Livestock vaccination: PPR and CCPP](/en/economy/livestock-vaccination-ppr-and-ccpp/)
- [Boran and Somali cattle](/en/economy/boran-and-somali-cattle/)

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