Emergence of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 in China in 2020

Abstract

Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) is an acute fatal disease caused by the Lagovirus rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV), which was first reported in 1984 in China. Strains of two different genotypes (GI.1a and GI.1c) have been detected in China to date. In 2010, a new RHDV variant with a unique genetic and antigenic profile was identified in France, designated RHDV2, which rapidly spread throughout continental Europe and nearby islands. Here, we report the first outbreak of RHD induced by RHDV2 (GI.2) in rabbit farms in the Sichuan province of China. We conducted haemagglutination tests and phylogenetic analysis of the new RHDV isolate SC2020/04, which was identified as a non‐haemagglutinating strain belonging to the RHDV2 (GI.2) genogroup. Considering the serious risk of RHDV2 to the Chinese rabbit industry, the circulation of RHDV2 in the population should be carefully monitored in China.

Development and Evaluation of a Duplex Lateral Flow Assay for the Detection and Differentiation between Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus Lagovirus europaeus/GI.1 and /GI.2

“…Since then, it has rapidly spread throughout other European countries, then Australia, Africa, and North America (reviewed in [5]), replacing most of the circulating RHDV in the majority of these countries [4][5][6][7][8]. It was first reported in Asia in April 2020 [9]. This new genotype was first designated as RHDV2 or RHDVb, according to the authors.…”

Incursions of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus 2 in Canada—Clinical, molecular and epidemiological investigation

“…However, later the RHDV2 variants showed increased pathogenicity (Capucci et al, 2017) by killing rabbits of all age groups, and a number of Mediterranean, European and Alpine hare species (Camarda et al, 2014;Hall et al, 2017;Le Gall-Reculé et al, 2017;Puggioni et al, 2010;Velarde et al, 2017). In 2017, a new nomenclature and classification system for lagoviruses was proposed (Le Gall-Reculé et al, 2017), and based on the new nomenclature, the classical RHDV2 was classified under the genotype GI.2 and the classical RHDV strains under genotype GI.1 RHDV2 (GI.2) is currently endemic in Europe, and outbreaks have been recently reported from Canada, USA, China, Ireland, Netherlands, UK, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana (Bell et al, 2019;Dalton et al, 2015;Fitzner & Niedbalski, 2018;Hu et al, 2020;Miao et al, 2019;Neimanis et al, 2018;Rocchi et al, 2019;WAHIS OIE Report Event summary, 2020). Due to the marked antigenic difference between the two viruses, rabbits vaccinated against the classical RHDV strains are not completely protected against RHDV2 strains (Le Bárcena et al, 2015;Müller et al, 2019).…”

“…RHDV2 (GI.2) is currently endemic in Europe, and outbreaks have been recently reported from Canada, USA, China, Ireland, Netherlands, UK, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana (Bell et al, 2019; Dalton et al., 2015; Fitzner & Niedbalski, 2018; Hu et al., 2020; Miao et al, 2019; Neimanis et al., 2018; Rocchi et al., 2019; WAHIS OIE Report Event summary, 2020). Due to the marked antigenic difference between the two viruses, rabbits vaccinated against the classical RHDV strains are not completely protected against RHDV2 strains (Le Gall‐Reculé et al, 2013; Bárcena et al, 2015; Müller et al, 2019).…”

Evidence of independent introductions of RHDV2 strains in Poland based on the genome analysis of viral isolates from 2016–2018

“…Despite the antigenic and genetic differences, both RHDV and RHDVa induce infections with the same clinical manifestations and postmortem lesions. More recently, in 2010, a new RHDV form, originally designated as RHDV2 (also named RH-DVb), genetically and antigenically different from the classical RHDV and RHDVa variant, emerged in domestic and wild rabbits in France (Le Gall-Reculé et al, 2011) and subsequently in the other European countries, Australia, Africa, and Asia (Abrantes et al, 2013;Baily et al, 2014;Dalton et al, 2012;Duarte et al, 2015b;Hall et al, 2015;Hu et al, 2021;Isomursu et al, 2018;Le Gall-Reculé et al, 2013;Neimanis et al, 2018b;Rahali et al, 2019;Westcott et al, 2014). Another pathogenic member of lagoviruses, morphologically similar to RHDV, is the European brown hare syndrome virus (EBHSV), responsible for the contagious and lethal disease of hares of the species Lepus europaeus and Lepus timidus, diagnosed first in Sweden in the early 80s (Gavier-Widén & Mörner, 1991).…”