By Miriam Raftery
June 25, 2024 (San Diego’s East County)—Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 (RHDV2) has been confirmed in three wild cottontail rabbits in Jamul and Dulzura in May, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) confirms. The disease, a form of viral hepatitis, is fatal 50 to 100% of the time in wild rabbits and hares, but does not affect humans, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The testing comes after East County Magazine reached out to CDFW in April after several residents reported finding dead rabbits in these rural areas, but none had been tested. Following our inquiry and further reports from residents, CDFW acquired several carcasses for testing. View our report in April.
“Everybody has been finding dead rabbits, from Jamul all the way up to the mountain areas,” Connie Kirkpatrick told East County Magazine on April 23, two days before our article was published.
Today, Deana Clifford, senior wildlife veterinarian with CDFW, confirmed in an email to ECM that two desert cottontail rabbits from Jamul and one from Dulzura all tested positive for RHDV2.
“For two of the rabbits, San Diego county Vector Control first tested for tularemia,” a zoonotic disease transmissible to other species, Clifford told ECM. “We wanted to be sure that the cases weren’t a result of that disease first. They were negative for tularemia and thus we submitted for RHDV2 PCR testing,” yielding the positive results.
More cases are suspected. “We have still been receiving some reports in the east county area, and thus submitted an additional desert cottontail from Dulzura on June 4th and those results are still pending,” she said, adding, “Periodically we will retest animals from the area to confirm infections are ongoing, and also if other species, like black-tailed jackrabbit are collected I will test some of those as we haven’t reconfirmed infections in that species at this point (only cottontails).”
Background
Rabbit Hemorrhagic Fever 2 was first found in San Diego County in June 2020, when a desert cottontail from Poway tested positive. In 2021, 11 more cases were found including black-tailed jackrabbits and desert cottontails, including cases in Santee, Rancho Jamul Ecological Reserve, Borrego Springs, San Vicente Ecological Reserve in Lakeside, Alpine, Ramona, and Campo. No cases were found locally in 2022 or 2023, though only 10 were tested.
This year as of late April, CDFW had received 21 reports of dead rabbits and tested four, including one each from Spring Valley, Bonita, Oceanside and Chula Vista, but all four were negative, prior to the positive test results in Jamul and Dulzura.
Protecting wildlife
Asked what's being done to protect wild rabbits, Clifford said, "CDFW is working with an ad hoc conservation team to protect our states most endangered rabbit from RHDV2, the riparian brush rabbit. CDFW is working with the USFWS, the Oakland and Fresno zoos, Cal State Stanislaus Endangered Species Recovery Program, and River Partners to protect a portion of this small population using RHDV2 vaccination, monitor population numbers and health, and restore habitat. Vaccination efforts are only implemented for highly endangered populations as they are time and labor intensive and require capturing individual rabbits for vaccination."
She added, "To help protect wild rabbits in general, we have focused on advising people how to reduce risk of human-caused disease spread. CDFW has a fact sheet that outlines prevention actions for recreationalists, falconers and hunters at: Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Quick Facts (ca.gov) We also detail safe handling and disposal and disinfection options on our webpage: Disease and Mortality Monitoring (ca.gov)." CDFW also discourages providing artificial water sources which may congregate rabbits into a smaller area and increase local disease spread.
Protect pet rabbits
To protect domestic rabbits from RHDV4, the Calif. Dept. of Food and Agriculture urges owners to prevent contact with wild rabbits. Keep rabbits indoors or if outdoors, off the ground when possible. Avoid feeding hay grown or stored outdoors in areas where wild rabbits are affected, and use biosecurity measures to prevent spreading the virus.
What to do if you find a dead rabbit
The agency’s online reporting site, Wildlife Mortality Reporting (ca.gov), is monitored twice daily. If you find a rabbit carcass, one option to help protect it until testing can be done is to put ice on the body (while wearing gloves) and then cover it with a box or towel to discourage predators. You can also phone 916-358-2790. Testing ideally should be done within 48 hours of death.
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