There are fears that a deadly virus has hit Britain after sweeping through Europe and killing 90% of the rabbits it infects. Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) was identified in France and the Netherlands last year, but now campaigners are warning that it’s made it to the British countryside. There have been reports of unexpected rabbit deaths in areas such as Suffolk, which the British Rabbit Council thinks is down to a new strain of RHD, despite there being no confirmed cases.
Hazel Elliott, the chair of animal health, welfare and legislation at the British Rabbit Council, said she knows a breeder who lost “a lare number of rabbits” and “suspects” it was down to the new strain. She noted the speed at which the virus spreads, killing rabbits within hours of infection by attacking their internal organs. “One minute it’s alive, the next it’s dead”, she told The Times.
Suffolk has been particularly badly hit with unexpected rabbit deaths, with the Wild Meat Company running out in February.
Matt Larsen-Daw, CEO of the Mammal Society, also believes there is evidence on the new strain near his home in the Scottish Highlands.
He told the outlet: “There was a sense around 2020 that [the threat of RHD] was levelling off, and then this new strain has just caused another wave of loss.
“There’s evidence of rabbits having been here [the Scottish Highlands], but now there are no rabbits, so it’s happened in very recent history here. Rabbits are disappearing across the country, and there’s little evidence to suggest it could be anything else.
“We just hope that there will be a native population of rabbits and hares when this washes over.”
RHD was first found in China in the 1980s and became a significant problem in Britain in the 1990s. It often causes sudden death, but symptoms include fever, loss of appetite, lethargy, difficulty breathing, and bloody discharge from the nose or mouth.
New strains then emerged in the last decade, marking the most serious challenge to the rabbit population since 99% of them were killed by myxomatosis in the 1950s.
However, Elliot said she expected the surviving population to bounce back and “recover fairly quickly”.
The disease also infects hares and threatens animals that hunt rabbits, such as foxes, pine martens, and birds of prey.
Larsen-Daw said nothing can be done to protect wild rabbits, they just have to wait until their resistance is built up.
