Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) is a highly contagious infectious disease of rabbits, caused by a virus.

Two strains of the virus have been identified with a death rate of 70-100%. Clinical signs of RHD include loss of appetite, bleeding from natural orifices such as mouth, nose and anus, fever and respiratory distress.

This virus is a notifiable disease across the globe due to its devastating economic damage on the rabbit industry.

In August 2019, Ghana recorded its first case of RHD in Greater Accra. The disease has since been reported across the country, appearing in the Ashanti Region in January 2020.

According to data gathered from rabbit farmers in the Ashanti Region, 90.9% (3573/3932) of rabbits have died between January and the first week of June this year, within the region.

Several factors including type of breed and size, season and occasion influence selling prices of rabbits.

Considering an average price of GHc50.00, a total estimated amount of GHc178,650.00 have been lost by these farmers as a result of the 3573 rabbit deaths attributed to RHD.

Institutions like pharmaceutical companies that depend on rabbits for research have also recorded up to 100% death rates from this disease. This has impeded progress in teaching, drug trials and discoveries.

Many of these researches are geared towards human and animal health improvement hence, this disease has significantly stalled breakthroughs that could have timely solved some health challenges.

Consequently, most of these trials and experiments have to be conducted again which means months to years of hard work and investments have been wasted.

Reported outbreaks of RHD in wild rabbits abound in Europe and Australia. Factors such as climatic conditions, age of rabbits, local transmitters and presence of non-pathogenic RHDV-like viruses are known to affect the epidemiology of the disease in many countries, however, in the case of Ghana, these are not yet documented.

The way forward

With a burgeoning rabbit industry, some solutions are hereby proposed to relevant stakeholders to revive the industry. 

It is worth noting that this virus can withstand many disinfectants and harsh environmental conditions, hence affected farmers are encouraged not to restock their farms until reports are made to the nearest veterinary office and the needed assistance provided.

Rabbit farmers in districts and regions can form associations, purposely to educate themselves through workshops from relevant stakeholders as has been achieved in the poultry industry.

Although public education has begun, there is the need to dedicate more time and widen the scope using local languages and the media can help in this regard.

Biosecurity practices such as the use of foot baths with disinfectants at entrances, restriction of unauthorized persons near rabbitries, the use of right and clean apparels, regular cleaning and disinfection of tools, and avoiding use of borrowed materials on the farm should be encouraged.

In times of outbreak, farmers should avoid visits and sale of rabbits to friends for rearing.

Practice all-in-all-out management where rabbits are kept by age, weight, production stage, monitored until maturity age for sale without mixing them.

This practice reduces disease transmission and improves management backed by good record keeping.

The Government can assist rabbit farmers with special packages in the current rearing for food and jobs program.

It is recommended that affected rabbit farmers are compensated just as the government did during the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza outbreak in Ghana.

This is an encouragement and motivation while mitigating farmers' loss. Meanwhile, farmers should consider insurance packages for future incidents.

Being a new disease in Ghana, it behooves on the Veterinary Services Directorate (VSD) to organize training sessions for all staff nationwide.

The VSD of Ghana and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) should apply their expertise and resources to help curb this disease through active and passive surveillance on rabbit farms across the country.

Local and international collaboration to unravel the possible strains currently circulating in Ghana will facilitate prevention and control interventions while boosting research.

Due to the persistence of this disease in rabbit meat, veterinary presence at the ports and harbors need to be heightened.

Like other outbreaks, movement controls will be a good measure to avoid spread to uninfected areas.

The Forestry Commission should be aware of this event since rabbits in our forests and zoosare susceptible and therefore at risk of infection.

Finally, there may be the need for stakeholder engagement, knowing the potential ramifications of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease in Ghana. The time is ticking.

Authors: Drs. William Tasiame, Yesutor Soku, Ekua Esuon Thompson, Victor Frimpong and Benjamin Kissi Sasu.