National Wildlife Health Center
Wildlife Health Bulletin 2020-05

Continued Expansion of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus 2 in North America and Additional Instructions Regarding Mortality Event Investigation

Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 (RHDV2) has continued to spread in wild rabbits in North America. As of early May 2020, RHDV2 has been confirmed in wild rabbits in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Colorado.
To date, rabbit mortality events reported by state natural resource agencies have varied from three to 1000 dead rabbits.

RHDV2 has been confirmed in black-tailed jackrabbits, desert cottontails, mountain cottontails, antelope jackrabbits, and eastern cottontails.

For up-to-date, national-scale information on RHDV2 events in wild rabbits, please visit the Wildlife Health Information Sharing Partnership-event reporting system (WHISPers).

For more up to date info, visit our Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus page