van de Bildt M W G, van Bolhuis G H, van Zijderveld F, van Riel D, Drees J M, Osterhaus A D M E, Kuiken T
Dutch Wildlife Health Centre, Department of Virology, Erasmus Medical Centre, PO Box 1738, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
J Wildl Dis. 2006 Oct;42(4):808-12. doi: 10.7589/0090-3558-42.4.808.
The number of free-living European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in the Netherlands has declined dramatically in recent years. Although rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) infection has been implicated as a possible cause of this decline, the definitive diagnosis has not been reported. We examined three free-living rabbits found dead in the Netherlands in 2004 by use of gross pathology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. We subsequently compared the identified virus with RHDV from elsewhere in the world by phylogenetic analysis. There was widespread necrosis, hemorrhage, or both in liver, kidney, spleen, and lungs of all three rabbits, consistent with RHDV infection. The presence of RHDV in affected tissues was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. The RHDV from the Netherlands showed the highest identity, 99%, with a strain from France in 2000, and fitted in genogroup G5. These results prove that RHDV infection causes mortality of free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and suggest that RHDV strains circulating in free-living rabbits in the Netherlands and France have a common source or that one has originated from the other.
近年来，荷兰野生欧洲兔（穴兔）的数量急剧下降。尽管兔出血症病毒（RHDV）感染被认为可能是导致这种下降的原因之一，但尚未有确诊报告。我们通过大体病理学、组织病理学、免疫组织化学和逆转录聚合酶链反应，对2004年在荷兰发现死亡的三只野生兔进行了检查。随后，我们通过系统发育分析，将鉴定出的病毒与来自世界其他地区的RHDV进行了比较。所有三只兔子的肝脏、肾脏、脾脏和肺部均出现广泛的坏死、出血或两者兼有，这与RHDV感染相符。免疫组织化学和逆转录聚合酶链反应证实了受影响组织中存在RHDV。来自荷兰的RHDV与2000年来自法国的一个毒株具有最高的同源性，为99%，并属于G5基因型组。这些结果证明，RHDV感染导致了荷兰野生兔的死亡，并表明在荷兰和法国野生兔中传播的RHDV毒株有共同的来源，或者其中一个起源于另一个。
