2nd OIE Rinderpest Challenge: the winners

Today, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) announces the winners of the 2nd OIE Rinderpest Challenge. For four weeks, players across the globe competitively diagnosed livestock and helped laboratories manage at-risk materials in order to find the virtual outbreak of Rinderpest. The challenge is now closed, yet players can continue to train!

Paris, 12 February 2020 – Over 12,300 participants from 121 countries participated in the 2nd OIE Rinderpest Challenge between 15 January and 12 February 2020. An exciting opportunity which gathered ten times more participants than the first edition held in 2019. For the past four weeks, participants have been playing the serious game to collect points for their countries. Meanwhile, they learned how to diagnose Rinderpest among several other diseases with similar clinical signs, as well as how to cautiously handle materials that potentially contain the rinderpest virus in laboratories.

According to the points displayed on the leaderboard at the close of the challenge, Uzbekistan is the winning country. With a total of 4,129,060 points, a new record has been set. From all players in Uzbekistan, player Narziev Nurmukhamma achieved the highest score with a total of 798,440 points. Narziev is a student at Samarkand Institute of Veterinary Medicine and will be invited to attend the 88th OIE General Session in May 2020. Uzbekistan will be officially recognised before the OIE World Assembly for its formidable participation in the game and collective effort to keep the memory of rinderpest alive.

At the close of the challenge several other countries had significantly high scores. India, which has demonstrated a strong participation in the OIE Rinderpest Challenge since the first edition, garnered 2,442,910 points while Egypt entered the top 3 ranking for the first time, with 392,870 points. All participating countries can check the top 100 countries’ scores on the website: rinderpestvigilance.com/en/play-the-game

For the record, rinderpest is the first ever animal disease to have been declared eradicated by the OIE and the FAO. Yet, a resurgence is still possible. Hence, it is crucial that key stakeholders, especially within the field of veterinary education and in laboratory facilities, work together to ensure that the disease remains history. In this regard, they are encouraged to keep playing the game and to learn about the disease and the proper management of at-risk materials.

In the Rinderpest Serious Game, the disease returns from the past and players must find the source of the outbreak. The 2nd OIE Rinderpest Challenge serves as an example of how single players can work together to achieve and exceed a collective goal.

The Rinderpest serious game is available from now on as an online learning tool for students, veterinary paraprofessionals and other stakeholders. It was developed in the framework of the OIE “Never Turn Back” campaign on rinderpest and was produced with support from the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Threat Reduction Program and Global Affairs Canada.

Play the Game:

Winner’s video: