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. 2019 Dec 13;9(12):1142.
doi: 10.3390/ani9121142.

Rabbit Enteropathies on Commercial Farms in the Iberian Peninsula: Etiological Agents Identified in 2018-2019

Luis Solans  1 , Jose L Arnal  1 , Celia Sanz  1 , Alfredo Benito  1 , Gema Chacón  1 , Oihane Alzuguren  1 , Ana B Fernández  1
Affiliations

Rabbit Enteropathies on Commercial Farms in the Iberian Peninsula: Etiological Agents Identified in 2018-2019

Luis Solans et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Digestive disorders are the main cause of economic damage to rabbit farms. This article provides a global and updated overview of the diverse etiological agents causing them, since 757 clinical cases were analyzed during 2018 and 2019-Ninety-five from young rabbits (<15 days old), 117 from preweaning rabbits (15-35 days old), and 545 from growing rabbits. Etiological diagnosis was carried out by bacteriological culture and a set of real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) tests for the detection of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), Clostridium spiroforme, C. perfringens, rotavirus A, Bacteroides fragilis, and Eimeria spp. Also, 40 EPEC and 38 non EPEC isolates were investigated for the presence of other colonization factors (afr2, ral, liftA, and paa) by qPCR. EPEC is the most prevalent agent in young rabbits, and although different virulence profiles have been found among EPEC isolates, the liftA+, ral+, and paa+ profile is the most prevalent. C. spiroforme and EPEC are the more frequently detected pathogens in preweaning rabbits, but B. fragilis appears to be a new possible emergent pathogen. In growing rabbits, diverse co-infections between C. spiroforme, Eimeria spp., EPEC, and rotavirus are much more frequent than infections due to only one of them. Other pathogens detected in very few cases are Salmonella spp. and Enterococcus hirae.

Keywords: Bacteriodes fragilis; Clostridium spiroforme; EPEC; Eimeria; Escherichia coli; digestive; rabbit; rotavirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Rate of detection by qPCR of individual pathogens distributed by age. The distributions of positive and negative cases within age groups are represented using black for positives and gray for negatives. (a) C. perfringens analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 95; preweaning rabbits, 117; growing rabbits, 545; (b) C. spiroforme analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 95; preweaning rabbits, 117; growing rabbits, 545; (c) EPEC analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 95; preweaning rabbits, 117; growing rabbits, 545; (d) C. perfringens analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 95; preweaning rabbits, 117; growing rabbits, 545; (e) Eimeria spp. analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 59; preweaning rabbits, 77; growing rabbits, 406; (f) enterotoxigenic B. fragilis analysis where the total number of cases for each group of age was young rabbits (<15 days old), 35; preweaning rabbits, 64; growing rabbits, 205.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Venn diagrams representing coinfections within positive cases. Positive cases of C. perfringens (orange), C. spiroforme (green), Eimeria spp. (blue) EPEC (yellow), and rotavirus A (pink) are represented in Venn diagrams to illustrate coinfections in the different age groups: (a) young rabbits (<15 days old); (b) preweaning rabbits; (c) growing rabbits.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rate of detection of the rabbit pathogens identified in the present study expressed as percentages and distributed by age. The distributions of positive and negative cases are represented using black for positives and gray for negatives: (a) shows 95 young rabbit (<15 days old) clinical cases; (b) shows 117 preweaning rabbit clinical cases; (c) shows 545 growing rabbit clinical cases.
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