Rabbit haemorrhagic disease: field epidemiology and the management of wild rabbit populations

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) has become established in wild rabbit populations throughout Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The abundance of wild rabbits has been significantly reduced, particularly in drier areas of southern Spain, inland Australia and South Island New Zealand. A detailed knowledge of the epidemiology of RHD is essential for the management of the disease in natural rabbit populations, either to rebuild or to control populations. When RHD first spread among naive wild rabbits, epidemiological studies provided unique information on the rate of spread, the possible role of insect vectors in transmission, and the correlation between the impact of disease on populations and climatic variables. Current research shows a consistent pattern of epidemiology between Europe and Australasia. Typically, the most severe epizootics of RHD occur among young sub-adult rabbits which have lost age-related resilience and maternal antibodies. However, the timing of these outbreaks reflects climatic variables that determine the breeding season of the rabbits and the periods when RHD virus (RDHV) is most likely to persist and spread. Further factors that may complicate epidemiology include the possibility that nonpathogenic RHDV-Iike viruses are present in natural rabbit populations. Additionally, the question of how the virus persists from year to year remains unresolved; persistance in carrier rabbits is a possibility. Understanding of the epidemiology of RHD is now sufficiently advanced to consider the possibility of manipulating rabbit populations to alter the epidemiological pattern of RHD and thereby maximise or minimise the mortality caused by the disease. Altering the epidemiology of RHD in this manner would assist the management of wild rabbit populations either for conservation or pest control purposes.