The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) have announced that over the next 18 months they may declare the cattle disease ‘rinderpest’ no more following decades of research.

Rinderpest while harmless to humans is thought to have existed on Earth from as early as AD 376 where it contributed to the downfall of the Roman Empire. Several recurring epidemics in France in the 1700s caused agricultural productivity to plummet, it also reached sub-Saharan Africa in the late 19th century where it killed off 80 to 90% of all cattle there.

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