Rabbits have fluffy, short tails, whiskers, and long ears that makes them so cute. However, like many animals, they too can get sick. A recent warning from Utah wildlife officials said that a contagious rabbit hemorrhagic disease is spreading in multiple parts of Utah.
According to the Utah Division of Wildlife, they have confirmed the rabbit hemorrhagic disease in both southern and northeastern Utah parts. The House Rabbit Society, a nonprofit rabbit rescue organization, said that this disease is caused by a calicivirus, affecting the wild and domesticated European rabbits from which the rabbits in the US have descended.
The good news though is that it does not affect humans, the US Department of Agriculture said. Wildlife officials encourage everyone, especially rabbit owners, to protect their rabbits from acquiring the disease by being vigilant on rabbits that they saw are bleeding in the mouth and by washing hands and equipment that they used in handling an infected animal.
Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Spreading
According to the House Rabbit Society, the virus had not been known to affect rabbits and hares, such as jackrabbit, cottontails, and snowshoe hares -- not until this year.
Wildlife officials said that the hemorrhagic disease had previously been observed in North America, which has killed over 40% of rabbits that had contracted it.
Symptoms of hemorrhagic disease in rabbits include bleeding from the mouth, the officials said. They cautioned people to thoroughly wash their hands, clothes, or equipment that may have come into contact with any infected rabbits or animals as this disease has no known cure yet, NY Daily News reported.
Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus
According to the Center for Food Security & Public Health, rabbit hemorrhagic disease is a viral disease of European rabbits that has very high morbidity and mortality rates in unvaccinated animals in which most or all native rabbits may die.
The rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is thought to have emerged between the 1970s and the 1980s in Europe. ABC News reported that a major outbreak of RDHV in China back in 1984 has killed 14 million domestic rabbits in just nine months. By the 1990s, outbreaks have spread in 40 countries which have become endemic in various locations where European rabbits exist.
Due to the outbreaks, a decline in the rabbit population was seen which has caused a detrimental effect on Europe's ecosystem. Several animals rely on European rabbits as their food source, especially for certain endangered species.
However, a new variation of the virus emerged in France in 2010 which quickly spread over Europe and the Mediterranean. They call it the RDHV2, which is often a "very swift and sudden killer," where rabbits can die even without showing any symptoms when they get infected.
The House Rabbit Society said that the rabbits die of internal hemorrhage and the disease could kill 40% to 100% of the rabbit population.
The hemorrhaging disease is spread through direct contact of infected rabbits or indirect contact with humans, equipment, clothes, rabbit products, food and water, mechanical vectors, and predators.
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