Main Entry: Rift Valley fever

Function: noun

Etymology: (Great) Rift Valley, Africa

Date: circa 1931

: an acute usually epizootic mosquito-borne disease of domestic animals chiefly of eastern and southern Africa that is caused by a bunyavirus (species Rift valley fever virus of the genus Phlebovirus), is marked especially by fever, abortion, and death of newborns, and is sometimes transmitted to humans usually in a less severe form