Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jan 27;9(2):49.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci9020049.

First Evidence of Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Domestic Rabbits

Matthieu Fritz  1 , Daphné de Riols de Fonclare  1 , Déborah Garcia  1 , Stéphanie Beurlet  2 , Pierre Becquart  1 , Serge G Rosolen  3   4 , Alexandra Briend-Marchal  2 , Eric M Leroy  1
Affiliations

First Evidence of Natural SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Domestic Rabbits

Matthieu Fritz et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

We tested 144 pet rabbits sampled in France between November 2020 and June 2021 for antibodies to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) by microsphere immunoassay. We reported the first evidence of a natural SARS-CoV-2 infection in rabbits with a low observed seroprevalence between 0.7% and 1.4%.

Keywords: COVID-19; France; Luminex; SARS-CoV-2; microsphere immunoassay; one health; pet rabbit; rabbits; serology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Serological evaluation of antiSARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pet rabbits in France. The green dots represent the rabbit positive for both antigens, whereas the orange dot represents the rabbit positive for RBD antigen only. The solid black line indicates the average fluorescent intensity. The same population was used to determine the cutoff for positivity (mean + 3× standard deviation).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Maurin M., Fenollar F., Mediannikov O., Davoust B., Devaux C., Raoult D. Current Status of Putative Animal Sources of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Humans: Wildlife, Domestic Animals and Pets. Microorganisms. 2021;9:868. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9040868. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chandler J.C., Bevins S.N., Ellis J.W., Linder T.J., Tell R.M., Jenkins-Moore M., Root J.J., Lenoch J.B., Robbe-Austerman S., DeLiberto T.J., et al. SARS-CoV-2 exposure in wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 2021;118:e2114828118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2114828118. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Palermo P.M., Orbegozo J., Watts D.M., Morrill J.C. SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies in White-Tailed Deer from Texas. Vector-Borne Zoonotic Dis. 2021 doi: 10.1089/vbz.2021.0094. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hale V.L., Dennis P.M., McBride D.S., Nolting J.M., Madden C., Huey D., Ehrlich M., Grieser J., Winston J., Lombardi D., et al. SARS-CoV-2 infection in free-ranging white-tailed deer. Nature. 2021:1–8. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-04353-x. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fritz M., Rosolen B., Krafft E., Becquart P., Elguero E., Vratskikh O., Denolly S., Boson B., Vanhomwegen J., Gouilh M.A., et al. High prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pets from COVID-19+ households. One Health. 2020;11:100192. doi: 10.1016/j.onehlt.2020.100192. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources