Released February 21, 2002
The following information was released today - it comes from a scientist who works with Dr.Capucci who has worked with APHIS and the Australians. Though the research this refers to cannot be judged via this writing, and there is to date no mention of it on PubMed, it seems worth noting and watching for. May mean some good news for the Cottontails in the US on the RHD front. Bad news if EBHSV ever gets here.A Comment on the Host Specificity of the Caliciviruses of Lagomorphs
Concerning the caliciviruses of lagomorpha, I would add the following information: the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the only species known to be affected by Rabbit haemorrhagic disease. No other lagomorph, such as the Volcano rabbit of Mexico (Romerolagus diazzi), the black-tail jackrabbit (Lepus californicus), or the cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) of North America, has been shown to be susceptible. A similar disease, termed European brown hare syndrome (EBHS), has been described in the hare (Lepus europaeus), but its aetiological agent, which is also a calicivirus, is different from Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), although it is related antigenically. Cross-infection does not occur by infection of rabbits with European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV) and hares with RHDV. Our recent study aimed at defining the susceptibility of cottontails to EBHSV revealed a diffuse seroprevalence in a wild population and the possibility to induce clinical disease and mortality in a low number of experimentally infected cottontails. Therefore, natural hosts are the species in which the 2 diseases can be easily reproduced. Inoculation of tissue suspensions from infected rabbits failed to produce disease and no replication of the virus was detected by RT-PCR in 28 different species of vertebrates other than rabbits.
-- Dr. Antonio Lavazza
OIE Reference Centre for Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia ed Emilia Romagna Via Bianchi 7-9 25124 Brescia (Italy)
--Hazel Rah To The Black Rabbit From Watership Down, by Richard Adams ©1972
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