Large-scale lagovirus disease outbreaks in European brown hares (Lepus europaeus) in France caused by RHDV2 strains spatially shared with rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

Ghislaine Le Gall-Reculé,Sokunthea Top,Stéphane Marchandeau,Jean-Sébastien Guitton,Stéphane Bertagnoli,Evelyne Lemaitre,Anouk Decors,Céline Hubert

doi:10.1186/s13567-017-0473-y

Abstract

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) is a lagovirus that causes rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) in European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). In 2010, a new genotype called RHDV2 emerged in France. It exhibits a larger host range than classical RHDV strains by sporadically infecting different hare species, including the European hare (Lepus europaeus). Phylogenetic analyses revealed that closely related RHDV2 strains circulate locally in both hares and rabbits, and therefore that RHDV2 strains infecting hares do not belong to a lineage that has evolved only in this species. We showed that RHDV2 is widely distributed in France and that it was responsible for more than a third of cases of lagovirus disease in European hare populations in 2015. The oldest RHDV2 positive hare was sampled in November 2013 and we reported two hares co-infected by EBHSV and RHDV2. All together, our results raise important epidemiological and evolutionary issues. In particular, along with the potential emergence of recombinant EBHSV/RHDV2 strains in hares, the enlargement of the host range changes the host population structure of RHDV2 and may alter the impact of the virus on rabbit and hare populations.

Highlights

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a highly infectious and often fatal viral disease of European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
In the E14-40 sample, our analysis showed a co-infection by both RHDV2 and EBHSV
Phylogenetic analyses showed that these sequences clustered into the RHDV2 phylogenetic group and confirmed that the viruses isolated in hares are RHDV2 (Figure 2)

Summary

Introduction

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a highly infectious and often fatal viral disease of European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). RHDV2 rapidly spread throughout Europe, causing significant losses in both domestic and wild rabbits [6, 8–11], and was detected in different islands, in Australia, in Northern America and in Africa [12–18]. In Western Europe, RHDV2 is responsible for almost all cases of RHD in both domestic and wild rabbit, cases of RHD caused by former RHDV strains being rare [6, 9, 13, 19, 20]. RHDV2 quickly evolved and recombination with rabbit lagoviruses that co-circulate in Europe has been evidenced in the Iberian Peninsula [21, 22]. These recombinations include the region of the genome encoding the structural VP60 and VP10 proteins of RHDV2 with the upstream region of the genome encoding the non-structural

Methods

Results

Conclusion