Spontaneous Papilomatosis in Domestic Rabbits

¹ Animal Disease Research Laboratory, Animal Disease and Parasite Research Division, A.R.S., U.S.D.A., Washington State University, Pullman

Infectious papillomatosis is an enzootic virus disease of wild cottontail (Sylvilagus) rabbits. What is believed to be the first naturally-occuring infection of domestic rabbits is reported, and enzootic infection of the California cottontail rabbit with this virus is suggested.

Rabbit papillomatosis is an enzootic disease of cottontail rabbits (Shope, 1933). Geographically, the disease is found in the wild rabbits of Kansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. The domestic rabbit and the jack rabbit (Lepus californieus) are also susceptible to this disease (Beard and Rous, 1935). While the virus can be obtained easily from the growths on cottontail rabbits, it is usually not recoverable from papillomas on domestic rabbits. Domestic rabbits are easily infected with the wild cottontail rabbit virus (WRV), but successive passages are usually not successful (Selbie and Robinson, 1947; Shope, 1935). The purpose of this report is to describe cases of naturally-occurring papillomatosis in domestic rabbits raised in Southern California.