People in the UK are very worried about a deadly virus that seems to be killing wild rabbits very quickly. The disease is called rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), and it has already spread through countries like France and the Netherlands. Now, there are signs that it’s affecting rabbits in the British countryside too, especially in places like Suffolk. Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, experts believe a new version of the virus might be the cause of many unexpected rabbit deaths.
Hazel Elliott, who works with the British Rabbit Council, said she knows someone who breeds rabbits and recently lost many of them suddenly. She believes the virus is responsible. She explained that the virus works very fast — one moment the rabbit looks fine, and the next moment it’s dead. That’s because the virus attacks the rabbit’s internal organs very quickly.
This disease isn’t new. It was first discovered in China back in the 1980s and later became a serious problem in Britain in the 1990s. Rabbits often die suddenly without warning, but sometimes they show signs like having a fever, being very tired, not eating, struggling to breathe, or even bleeding from the nose or mouth.
More recently, a stronger and deadlier version of the virus appeared, and it’s been killing rabbits in large numbers again. This is the worst threat to rabbits since the 1950s, when another disease called myxomatosis killed nearly all the rabbits in the UK.
In Suffolk, the situation is already serious. A local company that sells wild rabbit meat ran out completely in February, which has never happened before. In Scotland, near the Highlands, Matt Larsen-Daw from the Mammal Society says he’s noticed the same thing happening. He said that just a few years ago, people thought the virus was calming down, but this new version has caused more harm. He said there used to be many rabbits near his home, but now they’re all gone, and there’s no clear reason except this disease.
The virus is also a big problem for other animals, not just rabbits. It can also infect hares, and it affects predators like foxes, birds of prey, and pine martens who rely on rabbits for food. So, if rabbits keep dying, it might harm the whole food chain in the countryside.
Sadly, there’s no cure or way to protect wild rabbits right now. Matt Larsen-Daw said people can’t really do anything to stop the disease in the wild. The only hope is that some rabbits will survive and slowly build natural resistance to the virus. If that happens, the population could grow back again in time.
Hazel Elliott is hopeful that the rabbits which survive will be strong enough to start repopulating and bring the numbers back to normal fairly quickly. But for now, many areas of the UK are seeing rabbits disappear, and that’s something that hasn’t happened in such a dramatic way for decades.
