TY - JOUR
T1 - Seasonality and risk factors for myxomatosis in pet rabbits in Great Britain
AU - Farrell, Sean
AU - Noble, PJ-M
AU - Brant, Beth
AU - Caravaggi, Anthony
AU - Singleton, David A.
AU - Radford, Alan D.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful for the support and major funding from BBSRC ( BB/N019547/1 ) and BSAVA . We wish to thank data providers in VetSolutions, Teleos, CVS, and other practitioners, without whose support and participation this research would not be possible. This work was developed from a pilot study conducted by Joshua Gibson, a Nuffield visiting scholar. Finally, we are especially grateful for the help and support provided by SAVSNET team members Susan Bolan and Steven Smyth.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/2/8
Y1 - 2020/2/8
N2 - Myxomatosis is a highly contagious, frequently fatal viral disease affecting both wild and domesticated European rabbits across many areas of the world. Here we used electronic health records (EHRs) collected from pet rabbits attending a sentinel voluntary network of 191 veterinary practices across Great Britain (GB) between March 2014 and June 2019 to identify new features of this disease’s epidemiology. From a total of 89,408 rabbit consultations, text mining verified by domain experts identified 207 (0.23%) cases where myxomatosis was the only differential diagnosis recorded by the attending practitioner. Cases occurred in all months but February and were distributed across the country. Consistent with studies in wild rabbits, the majority of cases occurred between August and November. However, there was also evidence for considerable variation between years. A nested case control study identified important risk factors for myxomatosis within this pet animal population including season, sex, age, vaccination status and distance to likely wild rabbit habitats. Female entire rabbits were twice as likely to be a case (odds ratio (OR) 1.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26-3.13, p = 0.003), suggesting a novel role for behaviour in driving transmission from wild to domesticated rabbits. Vaccination had the largest protective effect with vaccinated rabbits being 8.3 times less likely to be a case than unvaccinated rabbits (OR = 0.12, 95% CI 0.06-0.21, p=<0.001).
Using a health informatics approach, we add new understanding to seasonal patterns of myxomatosis, confirming existing risk factors and identifying new ones that together can inform targeted health messages to rabbit owners and veterinary practitioners aimed at reducing the impact of this preventable disease. The surveillance of disease in pet rabbit sentinels also provides novel insight to disease in wild sympatric rabbit populations where infection is maintained.
AB - Myxomatosis is a highly contagious, frequently fatal viral disease affecting both wild and domesticated European rabbits across many areas of the world. Here we used electronic health records (EHRs) collected from pet rabbits attending a sentinel voluntary network of 191 veterinary practices across Great Britain (GB) between March 2014 and June 2019 to identify new features of this disease’s epidemiology. From a total of 89,408 rabbit consultations, text mining verified by domain experts identified 207 (0.23%) cases where myxomatosis was the only differential diagnosis recorded by the attending practitioner. Cases occurred in all months but February and were distributed across the country. Consistent with studies in wild rabbits, the majority of cases occurred between August and November. However, there was also evidence for considerable variation between years. A nested case control study identified important risk factors for myxomatosis within this pet animal population including season, sex, age, vaccination status and distance to likely wild rabbit habitats. Female entire rabbits were twice as likely to be a case (odds ratio (OR) 1.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26-3.13, p = 0.003), suggesting a novel role for behaviour in driving transmission from wild to domesticated rabbits. Vaccination had the largest protective effect with vaccinated rabbits being 8.3 times less likely to be a case than unvaccinated rabbits (OR = 0.12, 95% CI 0.06-0.21, p=<0.001).
Using a health informatics approach, we add new understanding to seasonal patterns of myxomatosis, confirming existing risk factors and identifying new ones that together can inform targeted health messages to rabbit owners and veterinary practitioners aimed at reducing the impact of this preventable disease. The surveillance of disease in pet rabbit sentinels also provides novel insight to disease in wild sympatric rabbit populations where infection is maintained.
KW - Myxomatosis
KW - Rabbit
KW - Surveillance
U2 - 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.104924
DO - 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.104924
M3 - Article
C2 - 32114004
SN - 1873-1716
VL - 176
JO - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
JF - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
M1 - 104924
ER -
