Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP - also known as lung plague), is a contagious bacterial disease that afflicts the lungs of cattle, buffalo, zebu, and yaks. Sheep, goats, camels, antelope, and wild bovids are resistant to the disease. Humans are also unaffected.

It is caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma mycoides mycoides, and the symptoms are pneumonia and inflammation of the lung membranes. The incubation period is 20 to 123 days. It was particularly widespread in the United States in 1879, affecting herds from several states. The outbreak was so severe that it resulted in a trade embargo by the British government, blocking U.S. cattle exports to Britain and Canada. This prompted the United States to the establish the Bureau of Animal Industries, set up in 1884 solely to eradicate the disease, which it succeeded in doing.

The bacteria is widespread in Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe, as well as parts of Asia. It is an airborne bacteria, and can travel up to several kilometres in the right conditions.