What is Rabbit Calicivirus Disease (RCD) ?
Rabbit Calicivirus Disease was a new name deliberately given to viral hemorrhagic disease of rabbits (VHD) by Australian scientists to be “less emotive”. [Refer BRS Report, August 1996, “Rabbit Calicivirus Disease” Bureau of Resource Sciences, Australia]. VHD also internationally known as RHD (rabbit hemorrhagic disease) was first observed in China when it broke out in a shipment of Angora rabbits flown in from Germany in 1984. Some scientists think a parvo-virus may be involved in causing RHD. Kochs postulate (a test which definitely defines the virus causing the disease) has never been satisfied by any laboratory except perhaps by a Chinese laboratory who are sure that a parvovirus may be involved. Meanwhile it has been accepted (for now) that RCD/RHDs causative agent is a calicivirus. In September 1995 Viral Hemorrhagic Disease (RCD) escaped from an Australian Government approved so-called “secure” island testing area on Wardang Island (approximately 4 kilometres from the coast of S
