JWD Your personal alerts
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 42(4), 2006, pp. 808-812
© Wildlife Disease Association  2006
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by van de Bildt, M. W. G.
Right arrow Articles by Kuiken, T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by van de Bildt, M. W. G.
Right arrow Articles by Kuiken, T.

SHORT COMMUNICATION

Confirmation and Phylogenetic Analysis of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus in Free-living Rabbits from the Netherlands

M. W. G. van de Bildt1, G. H. van Bolhuis1, F. van Zijderveld2, D. van Riel1, J. M. Drees3, A. D. M. E. Osterhaus1 and T. Kuiken1,4

1 Dutch Wildlife Health Centre, based at Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Centre, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands;
2 Vereniging Natuurmonumenten, Noordereinde 60, 1234 JJ ’s–graveland, The Netherlands;
3 Community and Conservation Ecology, University Groningen, PO Box 14, 9750 Haren, The Netherlands
4 Corresponding author (email: t.kuiken{at}erasmusmc.nl)

ABSTRACT:   The number of free-living European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the Netherlands has declined dramatically in recent years. Although rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) infection has been implicated as a possible cause of this decline, the definitive diagnosis has not been reported. We examined three free-living rabbits found dead in the Netherlands in 2004 by use of gross pathology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We subsequently compared the identified virus with RHDV from elsewhere in the world by phylogenetic analysis. There was widespread necrosis, hemorrhage, or both in liver, kidney, spleen, and lungs of all three rabbits, consistent with RHDV infection. The presence of RHDV in affected tissues was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The RHDV from the Netherlands showed the highest identity, 99%, with a strain from France in 2000, and fitted in genogroup G5. These results prove that RHDV infection causes mortality of free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and suggest that RHDV strains circulating in free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and France have a common source or that one has originated from the other.
  Key words:  Calicivirus, Oryctolagus cuniculus, phylogeny, rabbit, RHDV.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2006 by the Wildlife Disease Association.