Transient decrease in blood heterophils and sustained liver damage caused by calicivirus infection of young rabbits that are naturally resistant to rabbit haemorrhagic disease

Abstract

Young rabbits are naturally resistant to rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) caused by the same calicivirus that kills, within 3 days, nearly all adult animals. We have investigated changes in blood leukocytes, and in the morphology and biochemistry of the liver (the organ where caliciviruses replicate) of young rabbits undergoing benign infection by the RHD virus. Four-week-old rabbits were infected with a calicivirus inoculum having a titre of 2(12) haemagglutination units either sacrificed 18, 24, 48 and 72 h later, or kept for follow-up studies up to 21 days after inoculation. The infection caused an acute and transient decrease in blood heterophils, and sustained enhancement in hepatic transaminases. Inflammatory infiltrates of the liver were seen in all animals after 24 h of infection; they had a predominant midlobular location. Hepatocytes could present different degrees of cell damage, including cell death; these lesions were limited to the liver cells located around the inflammatory infiltrates. Liver transaminases peaked 24-48 h after calicivirus infection; this was the same timing when liver infiltration and hepatocyte damage were more evident. No alterations of other parameters of liver biochemistry were observed. We conclude that calicivirus infection of young rabbits causes a subclinical disorder characterised by an acute and transient decrease in circulating heterophils, and focal liver damage that is expressed by intralobular infiltration by heterophils, initially, and, later on, by mononuclear cells. Our finding of persistence of increased values of liver transaminases suggests chronicity of the infection in young rabbits. We propose that, although resistant to RHD, young rabbits infected by calicivirus may be long-term carriers of the infectious agent and, thus, become a major source of transmission of the virus.