Ryan Jeffery, [05 Dec 2023 at 10:00:41]: Good morning Can rabbit viral haemorrhagic virus effect ground squirrels and mongoose? This virus is killing lots of rabbits in the Cradle area and I had one owner telling me that the mongoose's and ground squirrels are much less? Jacoba Dongo, [05 Dec 2023 at 13:45:52]: It is only known to infect Leporidae. Picas, possibly also, but we do not have them in SA. This has spilled over to Eurasian badger Meles meles, also Mustelidae and musk deer, but did not establish a carrier state in these species. The virus has been detected in some rodents, but there is no definite evidence as far as I know that it caused disease. https://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/diseaseinfo/#R has good fact sheets on Animal diseases RHD updated 2020. Spillover events of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (recombinant GI.4P-GI.2) from Lagomorpha to Eurasian badger - PubMed Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) is a major threat to domestic and wild European rabbits. Presently, in Europe, the disease is caused mainly by rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2/b or Lagovirus europaeus GI.2), the origin of which is still unclear, as no RHDV2 reservoir hosts were identified. Jacoba Dongo, [04 Dec 2023 at 06:56:28]: Pathology of fatal lineage 1 and 2 West Nile virus infections in horses in South Africa http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1019-91282014000100020 West Nile Virus Lineage 2 in Horses and Other Animals with Neurologic Disease, South Africa, 2008–2015 - PMC https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5708237/ Quote from above article: Fatal WNV encephalitis was diagnosed in a giraffe at Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (M. Romito, unpub. data). The horses in the pathology article by June Williams showed macropathology with haemorrhage. But usually following rain and increased in mosquitoes. (Culex) Jacoba Dongo, [05 Dec 2023 at 13:45:52]: Animal Disease Resources Comprehensive information, photos, factsheets, and presentations for more than 160 transboundary and emerging animal diseases and zoonotic animal diseases. Maybe the predators of hares shifted to other species? Spillover events of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 (recombinant GI.4P-GI.2) from Lagomorpha to Eurasian badger - PubMed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33683820/ Jacoba Dongo, [15 Dec 2023 at 07:26:26]: In Mpumalanga, rabbit haemorrhagic disease was diagnosed in hares from Wakkerstroom (border of Mpumalanga and KZN, not too far from Newcastle, also with RHD in domestic rabbits). It has also been seen in pet rabbits from Trichardt area. These outbreaks are not reflected on the latest report to the WOAH (https://wahis.woah.org/#/home), possibly because OVR is closed for holidays. But RHD is not. In my opinion there is major under-reporting, which may be more so in the red rock rabbits, because of their habitat and habits.
