Pet rabbits at risk as hotter days spread myxomatosis

OWNERS of pet rabbits are being warned that hot and humid weather could trigger a disease that wipes out the animals in huge numbers.

Vets fear the hot and wet conditions could lead to an outbreak of myxomatosis. The viral condition is nearly always fatal and causes breathing problems, fever, swollen mouths and ears and bulging eyes. Rabbits with the disease usually die within 14 days.

It is contracted through flies, mites and mosquitoes and is also passed from rabbit to rabbit. An outbreak in the Fifties killed millions of rabbits after it was deliberately spread to curb populations. Vets have warned that the chances of the virus spreading this summer have increased significantly following the high early spring rainfall and subsequent hot, humid days.

John Helps, a veterinary surgeon and the technical manager for pharmaceutical company MSD Animal Health, said: “This year, we have had good spring rainfall and now some sustained warm weather, which could lead to a particularly bad summer with regard to the spread of myxomatosis in rabbits.”

A vaccine is available which provides immunity to both myxomatosis and another serious viral disease, rabbit haemorrhagic disease, which has killed millions of wild animals.

Vets are urging Britain’s rabbit owners to get the jab for their pets, as once the disease strikes survival is unlikely.

After it was deliberately spread in the Fifties, more than 99 per cent of rabbits in the UK died off, although populations soon recovered.