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The Footnote June 24, 2026 · Northern European cattle belt

The Cattle Plague That Killed Most of Europe's Cows During the Great Famine

While the [Great Famine of 1315–1322](/articles/great-famine-1315-1322) was reducing the European wheat supply, a rinderpest-like cattle disease was simultaneously killing 60–80% of the European cattle population. The two crises compounded each other. The 1318 bovine pestilence is one of the largest livestock mortality events in European history.

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