Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease update USA

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(Note for Australasia, Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease was renamed RCD - Rabbit

Calicivirus Disease by Australian authorities. They have now changed the

name back to RHD. RHD first emerged in China in 1984 in a shipment of Angora

rabbits flown into China from Germany. The disease spread through Europe

killing millions of rabbits. RHD disease has no

cure and kills rabbits faster than humans are killed by Ebola. No primates

have been

deliberately infected by RHD to see if they are susceptible yet Australia

authorities

are considering spreading this disease in edible food baits to kill wild

rabbits.

The only legal way to spread RHD in Australia at present is to trap wild

rabbits,

inject them with the RHD and let them go to infect other wild rabbits. All

rabbits in Australia

- both pet and wild rabbits are the same species - the European rabbit .

Rabbits in Australia

also die of Myxomatosis for which no vaccine is allowed. A killed vaccine is

available in

Australia against RHD for pet rabbits but this vaccine is made by

deliberately infecting

rabbits with the disease and killing them to take the disease from their

livers. This is because

RHD can not be reproduced in the laboratory outside of live animals.

RHD has now broken out in the USA for the first time. There have been 3

outbreaks of

RHD in the USA in the last year even though they have no large wild

populations of European rabbits to act as reservoir species. Imports of the

disease on frozen meat etc is suspected as

the source of one outbreak of RHD in a petting zoo in New York).

 

 

Conference Control Report

http://www.vhdcoalition.org/3rdmay2002.html

Coalition Co-Founder, diane of The Sanctuary participated in a conference

call with researchers recently.

 

In addition to diane, Dr. Pat Iversen, Dr. David Matson, and Dr. Alvin Smith

participated. The purpose of the call was in part to determine the status of

research and plans for the future.

 

Dr. Iversen spoke briefly about a recent conversation held with several

representatives of USDA agencies. The meeting was organized by the new

Homeland Security Committee. Dr. Iversen reported that the role of those

representatives was to listen as the researchers presented information to

them, and that until follow up conversations are held it is hard to

determine what was accomplished. A tentative plan was arrived at to begin

sequencing the Vesiviruses that Dr. Smith has in repository at his

laboratory. This project was accepted by ARS, Agricultural Research

Services, though the particulars have not been worked out. This is the

second time a USDA agency has verbally agreed to this project. Plans, which

fell through, were at one time discussed with APHIS researchers at Plum

Island. During this new meeting with Homeland Security Committee members,

APHIS officials stated that they had no interest in research of

Caliciviruses. In the past, APHIS personnel have indicated that the issue

was money. Though the Homeland Security Committee has no direct means to

fund programs, their position is one from which their advice to fund

programs would be given importance by legislators.

 

The researchers were asked, with increased interest on the part of

government researchers in other Caliciviruses, if RHD could be ignored. In

answer to that, all three of the scientists agreed that RHD could not, nor

should be ignored.

 

Aware that Dr. Matson objected to the term, " The most dangerous virus on the

planet, " as a description for RHD, all three were asked how they viewed RHD

being referred to as such. It was pointed out that the term " dangerous " in

part was qualified by the ability to cause fatality in humans by many.

Secondly, Dr. Iversen pointed out that we do not know if there is not some

virus out there killing micro organisms or insects at a rapid rate. As a

result, the Coalition will now refer to RHD as " the most dangerous to

mammalian species on the planet. "

 

Information regarding a research agreement between this research team and

Dr. Francisco Parra of Spain was divulged. Dr. Parra has been researching

RHD since it’s emergence in Spain. He is one of the researchers responsible

for the creation of a recombinant vaccine that has not been released due to

a lack of commercial interest. Dr. Parra has also reported, to Dr. Smith,

vaccine failure of the currently used " killed " vaccine in use in Spain and

other areas of Europe.

 

Dr. Parra has received samples of the Caliciviruses that were isolated in

rabbits in Oregon by Dr. Smith’s laboratory. Permits for importation of RHD

reagents have been sent by Dr. Matson to the federal government, the

reagents to be sent to both Dr. Matson and Dr. Smith by Dr. Parra. The

purpose of this work, in part, will be to see what cross reactions are found

when samples are tested for RHD. Specifically the research will determine if

currently used reagents for RHD will react to Vesivirus, Sapovirus and

Norovirus. This will be very important if rabbits are tested by officials

attempting to eradicate RHD prior to their destruction.

 

Noro and Sapo viruses were considered to be " human " Caliciviruses until 2000

when they were both found to infect other species. Dr. Matson has been very

instrumental in the fight against RHD and all Caliciviruses. He was one of

the first to educate other scientists and the general public of the strong

genetic link between Sapovirus and RHD. At the time, Sapo was still

considered to be a " human " virus. Currently, RHD is the only Calicivirus not

thought to infect humans by the scientific community. Not that any credible

research has been conducted.

 

The above mentioned failed plans to sequence Vesiviruses at Plum Island

included a plan to test antisense as a vaccine against RHD. With APHIS no

longer interestred, there is now talk about having antisense tested against

RHD infection by Dr. Parra.

 

The discussion also included suggestions from the researchers in regards to

how the Coalition can best achieve our goal of protecting rabbits from RHD.

The main point raised was the need to politicize the issues. This because

until government agencies are pressured into dealing with the virus, as they

have been in regards to Foot and Mouth Disease and/or the Bovine Spongiform

Encephalopathy, otherwise known as Mad Cow Disease, nothing will be done. To

this end, Dr. Smith and Dr. Iversen have spoken to the Senate Offices in

their state.

 

They suggested that the States of Virginia and Kentucky should be targeted.

One of Virginia’s Senators is the ranking member of the Committee on Armed

Services, and has a strong interest in bio-terrorism. The researchers

believe that all Caliciviruses have the potential to be used as weapons

targeting both troops and economic interests. The recent outbreak of

Noroviruses in British troops in Afghanistan supports this. Noro shut down a

military field hospital in that country. This is unusual as Noro usually

strikes the very young or the very old, though there have been previous

outbreaks of Norovirus induced gastronomical illness at military facilities.

In the Afghanistan outbreak, three patients were classified as seriously

ill, with circulatory collapse. Did they contract a " mutant " strain of Noro?

British military spokesperson, Lieutenant-Colonel Ben Curry said that, " The

strange thing seems to be that some people are affected more than others. At

the moment we cannot determine why that is. " Though increased gastronomical

illness in humans, who might have had a higher exposure to RHD than is

normal, has been reported, RHD is not thought to cause disease symptoms in

humans exposed.

 

Kentucky recently saw an epidemic of spontaneous abortions in Thoroughbred

Horses. The incidents were blamed on a cyanide bearing caterpillar. This was

not proven. Fifty of the horses who aborted were tested and eighty percent

were found to be infected with Vesiviruses, known abortive agents. Another

fifty horses from a stockyard were tested as a control group. Of those,

thirty percent of mares of foal bearing age and horses who were in contact

with them also tested positive. Thoroughbred breeding is an important

economic force with global ties in Kentucky.

 

Coalition representatives in those two states have said that they will

contact their Senators and, as per Dr. Iversen’s suggestion, write letters

to editors to help publicize the issues. Everyone in those states are

encouraged to join these efforts.

 

Finally, Dr. Iversen confirmed that the reagents to test rabbits for

Vesiviruses will be made available to the Coalition. We are currently

awaiting word on cost from a diagnostic laboratory that has expressed an

interest in running the tests. We are also formulating plans to have samples

sent to Spain to be tested for RHD as well. Ultimately we would like to see

studies on infection rates of all types of Caliciviruses in rabbits in the

U.S.