Rabbitpox virus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rabbit pox is a disease of rabbits caused by a virus of the genus Orthopoxvirus and the family Poxviridae [1]. Rabbitpox was first isolated at the Rockefeller institute in New York in 1933, following a series of epidemics in the laboratory rabbits [2]. It is an acute disease only known to infect laboratory rabbits as no cases have been reported in wild rabbits, it also cannot infect humans [3]. The symptoms of rabbitpox usually include a fever and nasal discharge and there may or may not be pox lesions on the skin of the infected rabbit. The lesions if present are usually in the form of a skin rash or edema of the mouth and other body openings [3]. Rabbitpox virus is a highly infectious airborne agent, which spreads very rapidly through laboratories which contain rabbits causing a high rate of mortality. Rabbitpox virus is closely related, immunologically to vaccinia virus, consequently rabbits that have been inoculated with the smallpox (vaccinia virus) vaccine have immunity against rabbitpox [3]. Rabbitpox virus is isolated and diagnosed using the same methods as vaccinia virus due to the similarities between the two [3].

References

[1] http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=99011

[2] http://vir.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/86/11/2969.pdf

[3] http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171327.htm