A deadly new virus is sweeping through Europe, killing every rabbit it touches in a matter of hours.
An aggressive strain of the disease is now thought to be spreading across the UK countryside – sparking fears for Britain’s bunnies.
The British Rabbit Council believes that a new strain of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), identified in France and the Netherlands last year, is responsible for a spate of sudden fatalities across the country.
While no cases of the new strain have been confirmed in Britain, rabbit population numbers have dramatically decreased in Suffolk, The Times reports.
The Wild Meat Company, a restaurant based in east Suffolk, had their rabbit supply cut short earlier this year after local hunters found so few of them.
RHD – which has more than a 90 per cent fatality rate – was first detected in China in the 1980s and has been endemic in Britain since the 1990s.
New strains of the virus have emerged in recent years and, in 2016, a variant called RHD-2 killed 400 pet rabbits in Britain within just 6 months.
It has posed the most serious threat to the rabbit population numbers in the UK since myxomatosis killed 99 per cent of the animals in the 1950s.
Hazel Elliott, the chair of animal health, welfare and legislation at the British Rabbit Council said: ‘I know a breeder who lost a huge number of rabbits, so I suspect it is the new variant.’
A deadly new virus is sweeping through Europe, killing every rabbit it touches in a matter of hours (stock image)
An aggressive strain of the disease is now thought to be spreading across the UK countryside – sparking fears for Britain’s bunnies (stock image)
The British Rabbit Council believes that a new strain of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), identified in France and the Netherlands last year, is responsible for a spate of sudden fatalities across the country (stock image)
She added that the illness works by targeting the rabbits’ internal organs and will kill healthy animals within hours.
The expert also explained how the virus is extremely resistant and can live on surfaces for months – making it particularly problematic.
Elliott advised rabbit owners to get their pets vaccinated against the virus.
She added that if pets do succumb to the disease they should be cremated and not buried to avoid risk of contaminating the ground.
Matt Larsen-Daw, the chief executive of the Mammal Society, said he had previously hoped RHD levels were declining but now rabbits are ‘disappearing across the country, and there’s little evidence to suggest it could be anything else.’
There is limited recent data on rabbit numbers, but the population was already falling before this strain of the disease was identified, having declined by 43 per cent between 2008-18.
Larsen-Daw said the disease also infects hares and poses a threat to animals that hunt rabbits, such as foxes, pine martens, birds of prey and occasionally otters.
He said that nothing could be done to save wild rabbits except wait for resistance to build up in the population, and emphasised the importance of helping their predators by making space for their habitats.
