Abstract
The outbreak of highly contagious transboundary rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) in Nigeria has a severe socio-economic impact on the rabbit industry. We present the outbreak investigation and spatial epidemiology of the first confirmed RHD outbreak in Nigeria from a field survey of 28 stochastic outbreaks in Kwara State, north-central Nigeria. A total of 1,639 rabbits died from 2,053 susceptible rabbits. The serotype “RHDV-2” was detected in tissue samples from some of the outbreaks. The case fatality rate of the RHDV-2 outbreak was 79.8%. The source of the outbreak is still unknown. Most (71.4%) of the farmers had introduced new rabbits into their farms 1–2 weeks before the outbreak. Most of the farmers practiced biosecurity measures such as farm fencing (83.1%) and routine disinfection of the farm materials (53.6%). However, only 17.8% of the farmers enforced movement restrictions into their farms. Some of the farmers (42.8%) had restocked their farms after being affected by the RHD outbreak and 75% of all those farmers that have restocked had used the RHD vaccine. There was no statistically significant association between adherence to biosecurity measures and the RHD outbreak in affected farms (p = 0.408). However, the introduction of new rabbits into rabbit farms significantly pre-disposed farms to the RHD outbreak (p < 0.001). There is a need for active surveillance of RHD across the country to ensure efficient and effective tracking, monitoring, and control of the disease. Equally, understanding the genetic diversity of the Lagoviruses in Nigeria that cause RHD to aid vaccine development is of utmost importance to prevent future RHD outbreaks.
Highlights
Rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a devastating non-zoonotic disease of rabbits caused by the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), a Lagovirus of the Caliciviridae family, which is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus
Confirmed rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus2 [RHDV-2] outbreak has been reported in domestic rabbits from Benin Republic [3], Egypt [4], Saudi Arabia [5], United Kingdom [6], Portugal [7], and several other countries
A total of 1,639 rabbits died of RHD in 16 reported outbreaks geographically spread across 28 farms within the state
Summary
Rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a devastating non-zoonotic disease of rabbits caused by the rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), a Lagovirus of the Caliciviridae family, which is a positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus. The first clinical report of rabbit hemorrhagic disease was in the 1980s in China where the disease killed 14 million European Angora rabbits in 9 months [1]. In less than a year, RHD killed 140 million domestic rabbits in China and spread over an area of 50,000 km2 [2]. Confirmed rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus2 [RHDV-2 (a variant strain)] outbreak has been reported in domestic rabbits from Benin Republic [3], Egypt [4], Saudi Arabia [5], United Kingdom [6], Portugal [7], and several other countries. Before 2020, there have been no confirmed cases in Nigeria making it difficult to trace the source of the outbreak, the spatial and temporal spread as well as the socio-economic impact on rabbit farmers. The disease is transmitted by direct contact with infected animals, body fluid, carcasses, fomites, or vectors like flies, fleas, and mosquitoes [8, 9]
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