Pyrosequencing of epizootic rabbit enteropathy inocula and rabbit caecal samples.

The aetiological agent of epizootic rabbit enteropathy (ERE) is still unknown although a bacterial infection seems the most likely hypothesis. In this study, amplification of the V5 and V6 regions of 16SrDNA from four virulent and two non-virulent caecal samples was performed using a pyrosequencing platform. The virulent samples did not group in the same cluster. The bacterial flora identified was both different and richer than the cultivable bacterial flora. These findings highlight the need for biomolecular techniques to identify the aetiological agent of ERE.