Can rabbit plague be transmitted to humans?

Rabbit plague is a highly contagious disease that occurs among rabbits. The morbidity and mortality rates of rabbit plague are very high. The excrement, water, and even air breathed by rabbits infected with rabbit plague may be sources of infection, so friends who raise rabbits must do a good job of isolation. So can rabbit plague be transmitted to humans? Rabbit plague usually only spreads among rabbits and cannot be transmitted to humans.

1. Clinical symptoms and pathological changes

Rabbit plague mostly occurs in rabbits over 50 days old. The incubation period is short, usually 3 to 5 days. The sick rabbits will not eat before death and will be briefly excited, such as jumping around and screaming in the cage. The body temperature will be 1℃ to 2℃ higher than normal. The mortality rate is high. After death, the rabbits will be in an opisthotonos posture. A small number of dead rabbits will have nasal bleeding. The pathological changes include poor blood coagulation, enlarged liver and spleen, bleeding spots and necrosis in the liver, enlarged spleen with a dark purple color, enlarged kidneys, and most of the laryngeal and tracheal mucosa are highly congested and hemorrhagic. Timely autopsy after death may reveal a large number of bubbles and gastrointestinal bleeding.

2. Causes

1. Immune failure. There are many reasons for immunization failure, such as poor vaccine quality, unreasonable immunization procedures, improper vaccine storage, insufficient vaccine injection or missed immunization, etc.

2. Inadequate management. Imperfect feeding management, no regular and quantitative feeding, lack of scientific feeding techniques, poor sanitary conditions in the rabbit house, bad air quality in the house, poor temperature and humidity control, and lack of timely treatment for rabbits infected with other diseases, etc.; the rabbits' disease resistance is reduced or they cannot produce high levels of antibodies after immunization.

3. Variety issues. Some breeds of rabbits have weaker constitutions and poorer disease resistance, and are easily infected by the rabbit plague virus.

III. Prevention and Control Measures

1. Strengthen comprehensive prevention and control measures. Pay attention to the daily feeding and management of the rabbit herd to improve the disease resistance of the rabbit herd.

2. Vaccine immunity. A reasonable immunization program is formulated based on actual production. We believe that the best age for the first vaccination against rabbit plague is 25 to 30 days of age, and the second vaccination is around 65 days of age. Thereafter, immunization once every 6 months is enough to give rabbits sufficient protection.

3. Treatment. 1. Once a rabbit is infected with rabbit plague, other rabbits in the farm should be given emergency vaccination with double the dose of inactivated rabbit plague vaccine to reduce the mortality rate. 2. In the early stage of infection, use Wenkekang injection according to the weight of the rabbit, 2.5 to 5 ml per rabbit intramuscularly, once a day, for 2 consecutive days.