title: Confirmation and phylogenetic analysis of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus in free-living rabbits from the Netherlands.
abstract: The number of free-living European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the Netherlands has declined dramatically in recent years. Although rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) infection has been implicated as a possible cause of this decline, the definitive diagnosis has not been reported. We examined three free-living rabbits found dead in the Netherlands in 2004 by use of gross pathology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We subsequently compared the identified virus with RHDV from elsewhere in the world by phylogenetic analysis. There was widespread necrosis, hemorrhage, or both in liver, kidney, spleen, and lungs of all three rabbits, consistent with RHDV infection. The presence of RHDV in affected tissues was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The RHDV from the Netherlands showed the highest identity, 99%, with a strain from France in 2000, and fitted in genogroup G5. These results prove that RHDV infection causes mortality of free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and suggest that RHDV strains circulating in free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and France have a common source or that one has originated from the other.
authors.affiliation: Dutch Wildlife Health Centre, Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Centre, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M W G
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: van de Bildt
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: van Bolhuis
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: van Zijderveld
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van Riel
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Drees
authors.forename: A D M E
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Osterhaus
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuiken
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000821:virology; D017250:Caliciviridae Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary* / Q000821:virology; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D017929:Hemorrhagic Disease Virus, Rabbit / Q000145:classification* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011817:Rabbits / Q000821:virology*
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral