Abstract
Since the early 1980s, the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) has been threatened by the rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD). The disease is caused by a lagovirus of the family Caliciviridae, the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV). The need for detection, identification and further characterization of RHDV led to the development of several diagnostic tests. Owing to the lack of an appropriate cell culture system for in vitro propagation of the virus, much of the methods involved in these tests contributed to our current knowledge on RHD and RHDV and to the development of vaccines to contain the disease. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of the RHDV diagnostic tests used since the first RHD outbreak and that include molecular, histological and serological techniques, ranging from simpler tests initially used, such as the hemagglutination test, to the more recent and sophisticated high-throughput sequencing, along with an overview of their potential and their limitations.
Highlights
Rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a highly contagious, acute and fulminating disease that affects primarily the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) [1]
While RHD diagnosis is pertinent to identify and manage outbreaks, the assessment of herd immunity is of extreme importance for rabbit management, as humoral response has a considerable effect in protecting animals from rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) infection [96,120]
By allowing: (1) the comparison of sequences of RHDV strains from different geographic locations and collected in different years, e.g., [147], (2) the identification and molecular characterization of novel lagoviruses, including the non-pathogenic forms GI.3 and GI.4, the antigenic variant GI.1a, and more recently, the new genotype GI.2, and study their phylogenetic relationships, e.g., [19,26,27,54,148], (3) to test non-specific hosts and vectors with a possible role in the epidemiology of RHD, e.g., [137,149], (4) to detect spillover events, e.g., [14,23], (5) to monitor RHDV infection in different young and adult rabbit tissues, e.g., [150,151] and, (6) to study the mechanisms of RHDV evolution, and hypothesize about the possible origin of lagoviruses, e.g., [29,30,32,152,153]
Summary
Rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a highly contagious, acute and fulminating disease that affects primarily the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) [1]. A tentative diagnosis can be made based on the epidemiological features, clinical signs and characteristic pathological changes, but they might overlap with other rabbit-affecting diseases, such as pasteurellosis, clostridial enterotoxaemia and rabbit pox [2,34,35]. This led to the development of several diagnostic methods and their standardization by the World Organisation for Animal Health (Office International des Epizooties, OIE) reference laboratory for RHD. We intend to provide a glimpse on the state-of-the-art of each method in order to allow researchers an informed decision on the best approach according to their needs
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