Walter Plowright CMG FRS[1] FRCVS (20 July 1923 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire – 19 February 2010 in London[2]) was an English veterinary scientist who devoted his career to the eradication of the cattle plague rinderpest.
The East African Veterinary Research Organization at Muguga in Kenya provided the base for Plowright and his colleagues to adopt the cell-culture techniques used to develop the polio vaccine to produce a live attenuated (non-pathogenic) virus for use as a rinderpest vaccine.
Plowright used a mono-layer of kidney cells to culture the virus until it became non-virulent and could be transmitted from one cattle to another, producing lifelong immunity against rinderpest.
[5] Unlike its predecessors, tissue culture rinderpest vaccine (TCRV) could be used safely in all types of cattle, it could be produced very economically and conferred lifelong immunity.
The research and application techniques that brought Plowright success in fighting rinderpest were later replicated by his colleagues to vaccinate against sheeppox and lumpy skin disease.