FAO and OIE urge countries possessing live samples of the recently eradicated rinderpest virus to comply with a moratorium on research using the live virus, and to destroy samples or transfer them into an FAO/OIE-approved high containment facility for biologically-secure storage.
These steps are part of the post-eradication process, and seek to ensure that the virus remains eradicated.
23 July 2012: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) and the World Organization on Animal Health (OIE) are calling on countries to implement a moratorium on the use of the live rinderpest virus, as part of the post-eradication process.
Following the eradication of the virus in 2011, FAO and OIE member countries agreed to destroy remaining stocks of the rinderpest virus or store them in high containment laboratories, and to ban all research using the live virus except for projects approved by FAO or OIE.
The moratorium is directed at countries currently storing the virus under insufficient levels of biosecurity. Countries are urged either to destroy these stocks or to safely transfer them to an FAO/OIE-approved high containment facility for biologically-secure storage. [UN Press Release] [OIE Press Release] [Website of FAO Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme (GREP)]