Frantic search for vaccine as deadly mutated virus sweeps UK

[cronus]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07 ... f-british/

Frantic search for vaccine as deadly mutated rabbit virus sweeps the UK

Rabbit owners are being warned of a highly contagious, mutated virus which kills pets within days and has no UK vaccine.

More than 400 rabbits have died in the last six months from a strain of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD2) that is new to Britain, reports suggest.

But this death toll is believed to be “the tip of the iceberg”, with up to 80 per cent of unexplained deaths unrecorded. In all, up to 2,000 rabbits may have been affected.

The virus, which has almost no symptoms, was first recorded in the UK in 2014 and spreads via animals, people and bedding such as hay.

(continued)