Table 14.1.

Quick reference guide to infectious diseases

Disease	Incubation period	Route of transmission	Clinical signs	Diagnostic tests	Treatment	Comments
Fleas	Life cycle takes 30–35 days for rabbit flea	Direct contact	Pruritus Hair loss Dermatitis	Visualization of fleas. Flea combing	Imidacloprid, selamectin	Spilopsyllus cuniculi is the rabbit flea; however, most infestations are Ctenocephalides spp.
Lice	Life cycle takes 14–21 days	Direct contact		Visualization of lice or nits	Avermectins	Haemodipsus ventricosus may act as a vector for myxomatosis
Mites Psoroptes cuniculi (Leporacarus, Cheyletiella, etc.)	Life cycle 21 days, eggs hatch after 4 days	Direct contact	Intensely painful and pruritic otitis externa (skin flaking/hairloss)	Clinical signs, visualization of mites in exudate/crust	Selamectin, ivermectin, moxidectin are suitable for all mite infestations	May get aberrant infestations on other parts of the body
Warbles Cuterebra spp.	28 days to 11 months	Not contagious	Masses around head and over back	Finding the warble within a mass	Mechanical removal of the warble; treat any concurrent infection	USA only, do not occur in UK
Passalurus ambiguus	18 days	Faecal oral contamination	None in adults, possible contribution to enteritis complex of weanlings	Faecal flotation, zinc sulphate flotation	Often not required. Piperazine and fenbendazole are effective	Ivermectin is not effective
Obeliscoides cuniculi	16–22 days	Faecal oral contamination	Possibly none	Faecal flotation	May not be required; fenbendazole is effective	Can affect a variety of other species. Rare in the UK
Tapeworms Several species	Rabbits often act as intermediate hosts	Oral intake of eggs from infected pasture	Cysts cause pain and signs related to area in the body in which they are found	Visualization of scolices from cyst fluid		There are tapeworms where rabbit is the primary host
Coccidiosis	7–8 days, complex life cycle	Faecal oral contamination	Diarrhoea, inappetence, weight loss, can be fatal	Faecal flotation, histopathology of gut wall		Eimeria stiedae causes hepatic coccidiosis, leading to jaundice, weight loss, ascites, diarrhoea, hepatomegaly
Encephalitozoonosis	30–70 days, variable, may be much longer	Oral intake of spores from infected urine	Vestibular signs, seizures, signs of renal disease. Rarely myocarditis	Serology, PCR of suitable tissue or urine, exclusion of differential diagnoses	Fenbendazole, albendazole, fluoroquinolones, lufenuron(?)	Encephalitozoon cuniculi does not fulfill Koch’s postulates and it is uncertain whether it can cause disease in and of itself
Toxoplasmosis	7–8 days	Ingestion of infected cat faeces	Sudden anorexia, pyrexia and death, possibly CNS signs	Serology Histopathology	Not reported	The rabbit is not the final host; therefore it is not infectious to other rabbits. No cysts are found in rabbit faeces. Can infect humans eating undercooked rabbit meat
Pasteurellosis	8–21 days	Direct contact and airborne spread. May be a commensal. Fomite spread possible	Many possible: rhinitis, pneumonia, abscesses, otitis media	Culture and sensitivity, serology	Antibiotics in accordance with sensitivities	Not all manifestations of these clinical signs are due to Pasteurella, so culture is mandatory
Bordetella bronchiseptica	3–10 days	Direct contact, airborne spread	Suppurative bronchopneumonia, may be relatively non-pathogenic	Culture and sensitivity	Antibiotics in accordance with sensitivities	Can cause potentially serious disease in guinea pigs housed with rabbits
Tyzzer’s disease	3–7 days	Faecal oral contamination, ingestion of spores from environment	Acute diarrhoea, sudden death, intestinal fibrosis	Serology	Reduce stress, increase dietary fibre, antibiosis and supportive care. Generally unrewarding	Usually weanling rabbits 6–12 weeks old
Salmonellosis	6–24 hours	Intake of contaminated food or water	Diarrhoea, emaciation, death. May get asymptomatic carriers	Faecal culture	No successful treatment reported. Questionable whether anything other than supportive care should be employed	Rare
Colibacillosis	12–24 hours	Intake of contaminated food or water, or infected faeces	Enteritis and death, particularly in colony situations	Faecal culture	Antibiosis and supportive care	With some strains mortality can be 25–75%
Clostridial enterotoxaemia	12 hours or more after alterations in bacterial flora	Carbohydrate overload, inappropriate antibiotic treatment	Severe enteric disease	PCR for clostridial toxins on faeces	Supportive care, fluids, cholestyramine resin	Clostridia are present in small numbers in normal rabbit gut flora
Treponematosis	3–6 weeks	Sexually transmitted, or from dam during birthing process	Crusty lesions around, eyes, mouth/nose and on genitalia	Serology, dark field microscopy on material from lesions, histopathology	Penicillin, × 3 doses at 5- to 7-day intervals	Can get clinically normal infected carriers
Listeriosis	3–70 days reported in humans and animals reported to be similar	Intake of contaminated food	Abortion, sudden death	Culture, post-mortem examination and culture	Not reported	Rare, organism appears to have predilection for gravid uterus
Paratuberculosis	Variable, up to several years	Ingestion of contaminated food or water	Intermittent diarrhoea	Histopathology (post-mortem?)	Not reported	Incidence higher in wild rabbits geographically close to farms with a history of Johne's disease.
Pseudotuberculosis (yersiniosis)	15 days or more	Oral intake of infected faeces from wildlife or vermin	Wasting, diarrhoea, dull coat, nodules palpable on the liver	Histopathology (post-mortem)	Not reported clinically. Vermin control required
Tulareemia	1–14 days	Vector (tick) borne	Pyrexia, lethargy	Post-mortem histopathology, serology (not commercially in UK)	Supportive care, antibiosis	Zoonotic
Lyme disease	Unknown in rabbits, 3–32 days in other species	Tick-borne	Causes polyarthritis in other species, knowledge of recent tick bite	Serology (not available commercially for rabbits)	Not reported	Serological surveys indicate higher prevalence in areas where rabbit-feeding tics are abundant
Myxomatosis	At least 5 days, but varies according to strain	Vector spread, although direct contact possible	Swellings around eyelids/face viraemia and death	Clinical signs	Supportive care, depending on strain is frequently fatal	Rabbits that have been vaccinated previously can get atypical myxomatosis, which presents as subcutanoues plaques/masses. This form is unlikely to be fatal
Viral haemorrhagic disease	3–4 days	Direct contact, fomite spread possible	Severe necrotizing hepatitis, disseminated intravascular coagulation, death	Clinical signs, serology, histopathology	Almost universally fatal. Supportive care
Shopes fibroma virus	1–5 days	Vector spread (mosquitos)	Fibromatous swellings over body	Clinical signs, histopathology of masses	Swellings usually regress within 3 weeks, so supportive care only if required	Recovery from Shopes fibroma virus confers cross-immunity against myxomatosis
Shopes papilloma virus	7 days	Arthropod vector	Malignant masses resembling squamous cell carcinomas in European rabbits, benign swellings in cotton tails	Histopathology	Supportive care, will likely fail
Papillomatosis	9–38 days experimentally, natural infection unknown	Direct contact	Small wart-like growths inside the mouth	Clinical signs, histopathology	As the rabbit ages, immunity occurs and the warts regress. Treatment only indicated if lesions are causing problems	Primarily young rabbits 6–9 months of age
Rabbit corona virus	2–5 days for acute, 6–12 days for less acute signs		Pyrexia, pulmonary oedema, enteritis in weanling rabbits. FIP lie syndrome also reported	Histopathology, serology (not available in UK)	None reported, supportive care addresses clinical problems identified	May not be a naturally occurring pathogen. Unlikely to be seen in general practice
Dermatophytosis	1–2 weeks	Direct and fomite spread	Lesions at base of ears and around muzzle	Culture, fluorescence with Wood’s lamp	As for other species	May get asymptomatic carriers
Aspergillosis	Variable dependent on dose taken in	From environment or food	Pulmonary granulomas have been reported, rhinitis seen anecdotally	Culture, histopathology	Itraconazole, terbinafine	Reports rare in literature, likely more common clinically