Cross Species Infection
Shared by Marguerite Wegner Rabbit Information Service 
The following excerpt is copied directly from a paper, titled "Phylogeny and variability of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus, and the present situation of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in Europe," written by N. Nowotny, C. Ros Bascunana, A. Ballagi-Pordany, S.Belak, D. Gavier-Widen & M. Uhlen, that was distributed at a conference, Rabbit Control; RCD - Dilemmas And Implications Conference, held in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 30 and 31, 1998."A major question asked is whether or not RHDV is able to cross species barriers and infect other species. Scientists cannot predict in which direction micro-organisms mutate; they are only able to react after a micro-organism has evolved. Since its sudden emergence in 1984, RHDV has infected naturally only wild and domestic rabbits of the species Oryctolagus cuniculus, with one exception: under certain circumstances (i.e.transmission at very high doses) we and others have observed that hares, which are closely related to rabbits, may be susceptible to RHDV (Steinbeck & Nowotny 1993; Nowotny et al 1997; Ohlinger pers. comm.)."
In August 1995, in Poland (Frolick 1995), three test sera out of 100 were positive to RHDV in hares and two of these had antibodies to the European Brown Hare Virus. This data clearly reports that Hares became exposed and presumably infected with RHD. In China it has been reported that European Brown Hares became exposed and presumably infected with RHDV (Xu 1991). Reports indicate that Rabbit hemorrhagic disease killed a wild hare in China and tissue from this Hare produced rabbit hemorrhagic disease in exposed Rabbits. More recently RHDV in hares has been confirmed in Austria (Nowotny pers. comm. 1998).
Another study done in Germany, produced a paper "Susceptibility of hares (Lepus europaeus Pall.) for the infectious hemorrhagic disease of rabbits (RVHD) under experimental conditions," authored by r. Jurik, L. Lenchuchova, J. Salaj, I. Melicharek, and D. Revayova, in December of 1992, states that Hares can not be infected even when exposed to Rabbits who have died of the virus.
The genetics of the European Brown Hare Syndrome Virus have been compared to the genetics of RHD and there are strong similarites. There are furthur similarities to other Calici virus, though studies showed EBHSV not to be as closely related to those as to RHD. This according to a study done by C. Wirblich, G. Meyers, V. F. Ohlinger, L. Capucci, U. Eskens, B. Haas, and H. J. Thiel, titled, "European Brown Hare Syndrome Virus: Relationship to rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus and other caliciviruses," which was published in September, 1994 in the Journal of Virology, volume 68, (8).
The important thing to remember in forming any conclusions regarding the potential spread of RHD, is that it is not a species specific disease. It began it's lethal progress through the world's Rabbit population in 1984. Though in it's form in 1992 it may not have been an agent capable of infecting Hares, after further mutations there is no guarentee that it will not.
Claims of there being "no evidence" of RHD infecting hares are not based on conclusive evidence. In addition, predators who consume infected Animals, do carry and can spread the virus through their feces. The cultivatable calicivirus model suggests that this could occur, and there is considerable experimental evidence that RHD can and does infect multiple species. Therein claims that RHD can not spread through the US due to the lack of wild or feral European Rabbits are not completely substantiated.
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