Recombinant DNA technology for producing new rinderpest virus vaccines

With few exceptions, vaccination aims to control rather than eliminate or eradicate disease. The eradication of smallpox in the 1970s led to two other human diseases, polio and measles, being targeted for eradication by the World Health Organization. In general, animal diseases are ignored by the public, however, recent targeting of the rinderpest virus, the agent of cattle plague, has put this virus on the verge of global extinction. For centuries, this virus was responsible for major cattle plagues in Europe, Asia and Africa. The success of the Global Rinderpest Eradication Program is an illustration of the power of vaccines to alter people's lives economically and socially when used in an internationally coordinated way. In this review, the history of the development of rinderpest vaccines and the new research being undertaken to produce marker vaccines, using recombinant DNA technology and reverse genetics, are described. In addition, the valuable contribution that marker vaccines can make in the final stages of the rinderpest eradication program is outlined.