[GribinIsaf]

We have had three young rabbits from our meat breeding programme suffer sudden death (24-48 hours since showing abnormal behaviour) in the last three days.

We suspect RHD-2 as one of the fatalities had already had the Myxomatosis/RHD-1 vaccine.

Does anyone know if this strain is currently present in mid-Wales we we are or have any other experience of this?

Many thanks

[GribinIsaf]

but it's widespread across the country and was rampant through the summer in wild populations in Scotland...

Thanks.  When the vet did the vaccinations she thought it wasn't an issue in this area.  Guess it is now.  Very sad for our animals.

[ZacB]

We have had three young rabbits from our meat breeding programme suffer sudden death (24-48 hours since showing abnormal behaviour) in the last three days.

We suspect RHD-2 as one of the fatalities had already had the Myxomatosis/RHD-1 vaccine.

Does anyone know if this strain is currently present in mid-Wales we we are or have any other experience of this?

Many thanks

Having witnessed the devastation caused by RHD, if you do have it I’d suspect all your rabbits to be gone unless very stringent bio security in place. Whole warrens have been wiped out completely by this disease around us and rabbits still aren’t back after a number of years.
Fingers crossed you’ve just had a few of your stock pass due to more natural causes - where’s there’s live stock there’s dead stock.......

[GribinIsaf]

Just an update in case anyone refers to this in future...

Talking to the vet they said there is  a "new" vaccine which covers myxomatosis/RHD-1/RHD-2 in one shot.

This has now been given to our key breeding adults hoping they will be ok while it builds up immunity.

We have slaughtered some stock that was very near meat weight before it showed sign of infection.

It is possible the situation is now stabalised

[Dreich Pete]

I spoke to a couple of folk around here who are well connected in the shooting and farming communities, and the word is that infected rabbits had been transported from Wales and released in several parts of Scotland to cull the wild population. I can't confirm that, and it's unlikely to be proven on the basis that it is such reckless action (legal or otherwise) that I doubt anybody would be stupid enough to own up - though apparently stupid enough to introduce a deadly virus into an uncontrolled wild population. Have humans learned nothing?

We started by seeing dead birds showing almost no sign of any cause of death, and the carcasses were being left by scavengers & predators alike. The local vets had issued a warning about this as they had started to see worrying signs of it being passed to dogs, and then we understood how our puppy was finding such large numbers of dead rabbits to bring into the house.

It's a shame that you've suffered at the hands of this virus, but hopefully you're on top of it now.