Agricultural History Review, Volume 70 Part 1 (2022), p. 158

This book undertakes an informative critique of the history of rinderpest, a bovine disease more commonly known as cattle plague. It focuses on the provision of vaccines and their relationship with global development in the twentieth century. At first glance, such a subject may not necessarily appear of relevance to many readers. This is particularly true for those in the United States, a country which avoided the ravages of the disease. In a similar way, the western industrialized nations of the world were barely affected compared with the way the disease devastated not only cattle, but also bovine populations in Africa and Asia. This lack of interest also reflects the fact that humans are immune to rinderpest. Under such circumstances, it may be tempting to relegate the disease and the literature which accompanies it to a mere footnote in the annals of agrarian history.

However, such an assessment would not only be naïve but grossly misleading, doing a grave injustice to McVety’s informative and perceptive critique. In six detailed chapters, complemented by extensive footnotes, the book explores how researchers on a global scale acted together to develop new vaccines. There were significant landmarks along the way: Robert Koch’s immunological experiments in South Africa in the late nineteenth century; the creation of the first ‘inactivated’ vaccines by Kakizaki (Japan) and Kelser (Philippines) in the 1910s and 1920s; the development of more potent attenuated vaccines by researchers in India, Kenya, Canada, and China in the 1930s and 1940s. This involved growing the virus in living organisms (goats, eggs, and rabbits). This in turn heralded the development of a tissue culture-based vaccine (TCRV) in the 1960s, followed by the thermostable vaccine (ThermoVax) in the late 1980s which did not require constant refrigeration.

McVety perceptively explores how each significant step in vaccine development impacted on national and international rinderpest control programs. Inactivated vaccines prompted governments to shift from isolation and sanitation measures to mass vaccination schemes as the main mode of rinderpest prevention. In turn attenuated vaccines made eradication possible, while the development of TCRV and ThermoVax, made it cost effective. The result was a remarkable success story, when after decades of intense vaccination campaigns, the World Organization for Animal Health and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) declared the world free of rinderpest in 2011.

The main strength of the book is the way in which McVety integrates the history of vaccine research with a broader and perceptive critique of the role of non-human actors in this story. In particular, the book provides a valuable insight into the interrelated issues of the development of scientific internationalism and national security, exploring how this resulted in the creation of the Office International des Epizooties (World Animal Organisation) and the global circulation of rinderpest viruses and vaccines during the interwar years. It explores how this subsequently became enmeshed in the tensions of the Second World War, the Cold War and global decolonization. McVety expands the standard Cold War narratives to show how these tensions were framed not only by economic and political concerns, but also by biological ones. During the Second World War, for example, several countries undertook research into the possibility of using rinderpest as a biological offensive weapon, but also developed defensive responses if it was used against them. Furthermore, the book also highlights contrasting postwar responses to rinderpest, showing how an international coordinated response was far from evident. The colonial powers in Africa tried to resist Food and Agriculture Organisation interference by creating a special branch for veterinary health within their CCTA (Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa south of the Sahara). As such, McVety’s study makes a significant contribution to the emerging historiography on late colonial resistance against UN agencies.

By adopting a top-down approach, focusing primarily on political elites, international institutions and high-level scientists, The rinderpest campaigns does not cover all aspects of the eradication story. Scant attention is paid to the field work of vaccinators (their routines, difficulties etc.) and the attitudes and response of livestock owners to rinderpest and the vaccination campaigns. It is only towards the end of the book that the author begins to tentatively investigate the crucially important role played by community-based animal health workers in dealing with the disease in the 1990s and 2000s. As the author briefly explains, their contribution was considerably more successful than both national and international groups in vaccinating and monitoring the incidence of disease.

The rinderpest campaigns does not by any stretch of the imagination constitute a definitive history of rinderpest control and eradication. It is however an accurate, authoritative and accessible, account of the way in which the virus and its vaccines became enmeshed in the machineries of national security, international cooperation and development. In light of COVID-19 McVety’s account provides a very relevant, perceptive and enthralling insight into the trials and tribulations of vaccine research and the inherent multi-faceted obstacles to its widespread adoption. The author should be congratulated for enhancing our understanding of a subject which is relevant to our current circumstances.