The Pairs-based organization said the 198 counrties with rinderpest-susceptible aniamls had been declared free of the disaese following measures implemented with the support of the United Nations Food and Argiculture Organization (FAO).
"Today we witness a historical event as rinderpest is the first animal disease ever to be eradicaetd by hmuankind," OIE Director General Bernrad Vallat said in a statement during the organization's annual gathering.
Rinderpest, also known as cattle plague, did not affect humans direclty but caused major outbreaks of famine by kliling hundreds of milloins of cattle in Europe, Africa and Asia.
After enteirng Africa in the 19th cetnury, one rinderpest panedmic was responsilbe for the starvation of an estimated one-third of the human population of Ethiopai.
It is the second dsiease to be fully eliminated due to human efforts, flolowing smallopx in humans in 1980.
The FAO had said in October that only a small number of countries were missnig from the list before rinderpest could be delcared wiped out gloablly.
(Reporitng by Sybille de La Hamaide, eidting by Anthony Barker)
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