L. Capucci et al., SEROCONVERSION IN AN INDUSTRIAL UNIT OF RABBITS INFECTED WITH A NONPATHOGENIC RABBIT HEMORRHAGIC DISEASE-LIKE VIRUS, Veterinary record, 140(25), 1997, pp. 647-650
A serological survey of 238 rabbits for antirabbit haemorrhagic diseas
e virus (RHDV) antibodies was made in an industrial rabbitry where no
signs of the disease had been reported for four years, Seroconversion
was repeatedly detected and was due to a calicivirus antigenically rel
ated to RHDV but without its pathogenicity, There was a seroprevalence
of 33.3 per cent among young animals at weaning at 31 days old, 27.6
per cent at five to seven days after weaning, 56.1 per cent at 13 to 1
4 days after weaning, 90.3 per cent at 19 to 20 days and 100 per cent
at 32 to 33 days after weaning, and all the breeding rabbits were sero
positive. In the last group and in the young at weaning, the anti-RHDV
antibodies were mainly class IgG, but they were IgM and IgA at 13 to
14 days after weaning, In older fattening rabbits, there was a decreas
e of IgM and IgA and an increase of IgG confirmed seroconversion witho
ut any specific signs of rabbit haemorrhagic disease, On the basis of
these results, the probable time of infection of the meat rabbits with
this non-pathogenic virus was immediately after weaning.