A genetically engineered vaccine aimed at eradicating a devastatingcattle disease of Africa and Asia has been further improved in the laboratory by the UC Davis virologist and colleagues who first developed the vaccine. The vaccine is directed at rinderpest, a highly contagious viral disease that is more than 95 percent fatal in cattle, buffalo and other ruminants. Rinderpest -- which means cattle plague in German -- is now confined to developing nations of Africa and Asia where it has killed more than 2 million cattle and buffalo annually. The method for producing the recombinant DNA vaccine was reported in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by a team of researchers at the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York led by UC Davis veterinary medicine professor Dr. Tilahun Yilma. The University of California has filed for a patent on the procedure for making this double recombinant vaccine. When tested under laboratory conditions, that original vaccine proved to be a practical, effective method for dealing with rinderpest. The improved vaccine is equally effective in laboratory tests and has other advantages. "If we succeed in our efforts to eradicate rinderpest, we will not only eliminate the disease, but also open up the international cattle market that is so important to these developing nations," Yilma said. "And without the threat of rinderpest, nomadic peoples will no longer feel the need to raise such large herds of cattle, which are extremely destructive to the environment." They now plan to field test the vaccine in Ethiopia, India, Kenya and Egypt.