Characteristics of a new variant of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus – RHDV2

Abstract

RHD (Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease) is an etiologic agent that causes viral haemorrhagic disease of rabbits, which is also referred to as rabbit plague. The desire to explore knowledge about this pathogen in the world results not only from its similarity to human hemorrhagic fevers, for which RHDV can be considered as a good research model. It is also important that with myxomatosis, rabbit plague is the most severe viral disease of these animals. Describing the classic RHDV virus, followed by RHDVa, which is considered the first described antigenic variant of the RHD virus, allowed to become familiar with the information that until now constituted the basic building block of the control of viral haemorrhagic disease of rabbits in the world. However, the attributes of RHDV2, characterized only in 2010, differ significantly from the specifics of RHDV strains known to date. What’s more, the global expansion of this pathogen has significantly changed the RHD image, the methods of its identification, control and eradication. The completely changed face of the virus that causes rabbit plague causes that the belief about full supervision over RHD is now obsolete.