Sent To Members In Response to Emergency Management Warning Recieved on December 11, 2001
In reading the latest Emergency Management Warning the following jumped out at us:"This is not considered a zoonotic disease."
What this tells us;
We are seeing a little bit of a change here. In the past, their statements have always said RHD cannot infect humans. Now, "not considered" gives them some room to move.
A further note on the above, Dr. Jeffery Huse of the State Veterinarians Office of the state of New York will be speaking with Dr. John P. Huntley, New York’s State Veterinarian, regarding the possibility of testing the other Animals at the facility. The managers of facility, a Zoological Park, will be asked if they are willing to submit samples to be tested.
We will be speaking with a representative of the Queens Zoo/Wildlife Center tomorrow to ascertain the origin of rabbit meat that is used to feed Animals at the facility. It is interesting to note that the they house several species known to be susceptible to a variety of Caliciviruses, eg; Coyotes, Sea Lions, Cows, numerous Birds. Please note the facility’s name was not given to us by the New York State Vet Office. We have many sources -:).
"The remaining rabbits were quarantined and isolated from other animals."
What this tells us;
They are not positive that other Animals cannot become infected.
"The five remaining rabbits were euthanized on Monday, December 10, 2001, and additional samples will be sent to FADDL."
What this tells us;
Rabbits are being euthanized regardless of proof of infection.
The information given regarding the various strains found in the US tells us next to nothing. The Mexico/Korea/ Utah strain are all of Chinese origin. Just as the strain of FMD that hit England and, in a separate instance, Taiwan. The strain attributed to the Iowa "Outbreak," if there was a way to capititalize quotation marks we would certainly do so, is of European origin. Then come to think of it, the original European Outbreaks were of Chinese origin as well. God bless free trade and open borders.
The information does not tells us that there is widespread RHD.
It does rule out biowarfare for the purpose of gaining economic power. China’s Rabbit Industry was floundering prior to RHD. China now holds 30% of the world's market on Rabbit products.
It does not rule out spread of the disease by Animal Rights Activists. The Coalition is not supporting such accusations. We can only say that nothing has ruled these statements as completely invalid.
It does not rule out widespread RHD in the US. There are far to many accounts from breeders of incidents wherein after attending a show, they lost a large portion of their herds to unknown causes.
There are no conclusions that can be drawn. The one thing this information does tell us is that we do not know enough. That not enough research is being done. That our government is willing to kill potentially infected Rabbits and take no other proactive measures. The USDA is not willing to safeguard us. There are no public education programs as we saw regarding FMD last summer regarding the outbreak of FMD in England. There are no restrictions at our borders. There are Vet checks at our borders for live Animals. These mean nothing. A Vet check tells us that the imported or traveling Rabbits are not dead, they have no ear mites and bodily fluids are not oozing from them. Vet checks, whether at our international borders or between states, mean nothing.
It is interesting that the testing being done is on the polymerase region of the RHDV Genome. This is a highly conserved area of the virus. There are other areas that are far more variable. If there can be this much of a difference between strains in a conserved area of the virus, it is scary to consider the changes taking place in the more variable areas. The capsid protein, the outer shell, of the virus, is generally considered to be the part of a virus that determines the species to be infected. If the conserved areas are mutating this much between strains, how much are the variable areas muting? How much is the capsid protein mutating?
"VS will also investigate reports of suspect RHD..."
What this tells us;
We, and all who worked on this, were successful in efforts to convince the USDA to use the correct name for this deadly virus. The term RCD is no where to be seen in this document.
Finally, we are inviting all to attend a chat tomorrow night, 6:30 pm Pacific Time to discuss Action. If two outbreaks four months apart and still no safeguards is not enough to inspire us to begin some consolidated work, then we should all begin safeguarding our burrows. How anyone can do that against a virus that can live for two days outside of a host species at 105 degrees has not been adequately explained. Save closed breeding facilities, with ample safeguards against mice, rats, cats and birds entering, we do not believe that there are any disinfecting or quarantine measures that would be adequate. Dr. Douglas Gregg of FADDL stated that RHD was a level three biohazard. There are two level three facilities in the country. We seriously doubt one of them is foster home for shelter Rabbits.
The chat will be held at http://community.kindplanet.org/ in the RHD Action Planning room at 6:30 pm PST, December 13, 2001. It will not be archived. All interested, Coalition members and others, are encouraged to attend.
--Silver To All From Watership Down, by Richard Adams ©1972
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