On Jul. 11, 1868, Texas cattle disease first appeared at Jersey City’s Communipaw slaughterhouse in the New York metropolitan area. More than 800 people subsequently died from the disease

Rinderpest (a.k.a. cattle plague or steppe murrain) is a contagious and highly-fatal disease of cattle, including antelope, buffaloes, deer, giraffes, wildebeests, warthogs and yaks.

Rinderpest is caused by a morbillivirus related to human measles, canine distemper and peste des petits ruminants.