Main description:

Cattle Plague: A History is the most comprehensive general study of the history of cattle plague or rinderpest yet attempted, of which there has not been a book in English since 1866. With its stranglehold on the economy of Europe until the later 19th century, rinderpest has been the most neglected study in history. The most virulent and dreaded animal disease to affect Europe and Asia from ancient times with up to 95 percent mortality of affected cattle; in the 18th century it is estimated to have carried off more than 200 million head of cattle in Europe, exclusive of Siberia and Tartary. Germany alone lost 28 million between 1711 and 1865, 3 in every 4 animals dying. Following its introduction into Britain in 1745, the losses in 1745-57 were estimated at in excess of half a million head. Its introduction in 1865 with a dozen oxen led to the death, including those which were slaughtered, of 278,943 animals, some estimates putting the loss as high as 420,000, representing 7 per cent of the national herd; according to some affecting livestock farming and the meat trade for the next 25 years. It was responsible for a major panzootic in Africa at the turn of the 19th century, devastating domestic and wild animals alike and affecting the ecology of Africa to the present. Confined today to one known remaining focus in Africa, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations hopes to eradicate this disease entirely by 2010, which if successful will be the first animal disease to be eradicated from the world (and the second disease after smallpox) and would be one of the greatest achievements ever in veterinary science.
Cattle Plague: A History is divided into five sections, dealing with the nature of the virus, followed by a chronological history of its occurrence in Europe from the Roman Empire to the final 20th century outbreaks; then administrative control measures through legislation, the principal players from the 18th century, followed by an analysis of some effects, political, economic and social. Then follows attempts at cure from earliest times encompassing superstition and witchcraft, largely Roman methods persisting until the 19th century; the search for a cure through inoculation and the final breakthrough in Africa at the end of the 19th century. The last section covers the disease in Asia and Africa. Appendices cover regulations now in force to control the disease as well as historical instructions, decrees and statutes dating from 1745-1878.

Contents:

Part I: Introduction and Background. 1. The Nature of Cattle Plague or Rinderpest. 2. Species Affected and Geographical Distribution. 3. The Seat of Infection. 4. Rinderpest and the Panspermatists. Theories of the origin of diseases.
Part II: The History of Rinderpest in Europe. 5. Rinderpest in History. From Ancient Egypt to the 17th century. 6. Saint Herbot Sleeps. The 18th century ravages in Europe. 7. Rinderpest Reaches Britain Again. 8. From Seven Years War to Crimean War. A century of devastation continues. 9. The Second Great Plague in Britain. 10. The Final European Outbreaks.
Part III: Control Measures, Legislation and Effects. 11. Arguments and Enmities. Simonds and Gamgee. 12. Legal Measures of Prevention in the 18th Century. 13. Legal Measures after the 18th Century. 14. The Royal Commission, Legislative Failure, Insurance and Government Actions in 19th Century Britain. 15. Political, Economic and Social Effects.
Part IV: Cures and Remedies. 16. The Search for a Cure. Desperate diseases require desperate remedies. 17. Remedies in the 19th century. 18. The Search for a Cure Continued. Inoculation and vaccination. 19. The Breakthrough in Africa.
Part V: The History of Rinderpest in Asia and Africa. 20. Rinderpest in India. Part I. 21. Rinderpest in India and Asia. Part II. 22. The Great African Rinderpest Panzootic. 23. The Panzootic Reaches South Africa. March to December 1896. 24. The Continuance of Rinderpest in South Africa. 1897 to 1905. 25. Rinderpest in Africa in the Twentieth Century. 26. Continuation of Rinderpest in Africa. 27. Economic and Social Effects in Africa. 28. The Effect of the Panzootic on African Game. 29. Specific Effects on African Game. 30. Did Rinderpest Exist in Africa Before the Panzootic?
Appendix I: Regulations now in force in the German Empire in regard to Measures against Rinderpest.
Appendix II: Instructions and decrees issued by Carl, Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, 1745-1782.
Appendix III: Statutes, Orders in Council and Proclamations concerning Rinderpest in Britain and Ireland 1746-1878.
Bibliography. Index.