Right now we have an alert in our country since it is a disease that is affecting at least 12 provinces and is killing many animals. We must remember that these little ones in the wild are the base of the food chain, if these animals disappear the following animals in the food chain can be seriously affected.
It is, as we will see below, a virus that previously only affected rabbits but has evolved to also affect Iberian hares, a species with which it is ending. This is a real plague that we must stop .
What is myxomatosis
Myxomatosis is an important disease of rabbits caused by a poxvirus called myxoma virus. It causes very mild disease in its original South American host, but in some species of rabbits and hares, especially European rabbits ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ), it causes severe disease with high mortality.
The word “myxoma” derives from the Greek term for mucus and designates a connective tissue tumor that usually lodges in mucus. The disease is characterized by the presence of tumors on the face and limbs of affected animals. Hence, when it occurs in the eyelids, they prevent the animal from seeing, leaving it exposed to multiple dangers.
In the short story of this virus, the human being and his mistakes have a lot to do with it.
It was isolated for the first time from laboratory rabbits in Uruguay in 1898, but it was not until 1927 that it was identified in 1927 as a poxvirus. The human being, faced with his blunder of introducing rabbits in Australia and becoming a plague, introduced this virus in 1950 with the idea of exterminating the island’s lagomorphs. Later, myxomatosis was deliberately introduced in France in 1952 by a bacteriologist in order to reduce the rabbit population on his farm, and it quickly spread throughout continental Europe and the United Kingdom. Wild rabbit populations in Europe declined by 90-95% in the years following the introduction of the virus in the 1950s.
It is transmitted mainly by the bite of arthropod insects, that is: by bites of fleas, flies, mosquitoes and the like. It can also occur through direct contact with infected animals. Precisely because of how easy it is to transmit, vaccination is especially important .
It is important to keep in mind that myxomatosis is a disease that cannot be spread to humans, so there should be no panic in that regard.
usual signs
The most common is that the symptoms appear between 1 and 3 days after infection . And these symptoms include:
- Inflammation of the eyelids and genitals.
- Skin lesions.
- Pneumonia and conjunctivitis (due to lack of immune response).
The main thing in this disease is to recognize the symptoms as soon as possible since the disease causes a high mortality rate and this occurs only a few days after the appearance of the first symptom (between 8 and 15 days later).
How to prevent myxomatosis
If you want to prevent myxomatosis in your rabbit, the most important thing is to have a good vaccination schedule . In this specific case, the specific guideline assumes:
- A first vaccination when the rabbits are 8 weeks old or more.
- Currently maintenance is an annual dose that also includes another disease.
There are also other vaccination options that depend on the geographical situation in which you find yourself and the situation and care of the animal.
These vaccines help rabbits to acquire immunity 3 weeks after applying it, so it is necessary to be careful during the first days, continue protecting the animals and prevent them from being in areas of possible contagion.
One of the most positive characteristics of this vaccination is that it also protects against Viral Hemorrhagic Disease . Strain I and strain II
To avoid these problems and stop this plague , we all need to be aware of the importance of vaccination and keep our little rabbits up to date . For this reason, it is essential to vaccinate all rabbits, even if they live indoors and do not have contact with other animals.
