AUTHOR=Oyewo Muftau , Al-Mustapha Ahmad I. , Richards Bukola A. , Abdulkareem Lateefah , Olasoju Taiwo , Babale Sufiyan M. , Khalid Hamza , Meseko Clement , Balogun Muhammad S. 

TITLE=Preliminary Outbreak Investigation and Spatial Epidemiology of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Outbreak in Nigeria

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Veterinary Science

VOLUME=Volume 8 - 2021

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2021.771599

DOI=10.3389/fvets.2021.771599

ISSN=2297-1769

ABSTRACT=The outbreak of highly contagious transboundary rabbit hemorrhagic disease (RHD) in Nigeria has a severe socio-economic impact on the rabbit industry. We present the outbreak investigation and spatial epidemiology of the first confirmed RHD outbreak in Nigeria from a field survey of 28 stochastic outbreaks in Kwara State, north-central Nigeria. 
A total of 1,639 rabbits died from 2,053 susceptible rabbits. The serotype “RHDV-2” was detected in tissue samples from some of the outbreaks. The case fatality rate of the RHDV-2 outbreak was 79.8%. The source of the outbreak is still unknown. Most (71.4%) of the farmers had introduced new rabbits into their farms 1-2 weeks before the outbreak.  Most of the farmers practiced biosecurity measures such as farm fencing (83.1%) and routine disinfection of the farm materials (53.6%). However, only 17.8% of the farmers enforced movement restrictions into their farms. Some of the farmers (42.8%) had restocked their farms after being affected by the RHD outbreak and 75% of all those farmers that have restocked had used the RHD vaccine. There was no statistically significant association between adherence to biosecurity measures and the RHD outbreak in affected farms (p = 0.408). However, the introduction of new rabbits into rabbit farms significantly pre-disposed farms to the RHD outbreak (p < 0.001).  
There is a need for active surveillance of RHD across the country to ensure efficient and effective tracking, monitoring, and control of the disease.