Tag Archives: Rabbit

Rabbits can be risky: Chinese hunter diagnosed with bubonic plague after eating wild hare

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My father’s family is Welsh, Newport, got the shit bombed out of them when he was an infant, and rabbit was a common meat.

Twenty-eight people in northern China have been quarantined after a hunter was diagnosed with bubonic plague on Saturday.

Chinese officials believe the unidentified male became infected after handling and eating a wild hare on Nov. 5 in the Inner Mongolia, according to state news site XinhuaNet. 

As a precaution, officials quarantined the people who had since come in contact with the man. None of them have exhibited fever or other symptoms of the plague, infamous for the Black Death pandemic during the Middle Ages. 

Two cases of pneumonic plague, a highly contagious form of the disease, were confirmed in China by local health officials last week. The two patients, who also were from Inner Mongolia, were diagnosed in Beijing and are currently being treated for the condition in the Chaoyang District. 

No epidemiological association has been found between the two cases, according to officials.

The plague is caused by Yersinia pestis — a common bacteria carried by rats, rabbits and squirrels, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Humans can contract the bubonic plague when bitten by infected fleas. Handling infected animals directly also can cause infection.

You’re such a cute bunny; yes you are; and you can carry dangerous bacteria

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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in zoonotic (e.g. Salmonella spp.), pathogenic, and opportunistic (e.g. E. coli) bacteria in animals represents a potential reservoir of antimicrobial resistant bacteria and resistance genes to bacteria infecting humans and other animals. This study evaluated the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella enterica, and the presence of associated AMR in commercial meat, companion, research, and shelter rabbits in Canada. Associations between antimicrobial usage and prevalence of AMR in bacterial isolates were also examined in commercial meat rabbits.

Culture and susceptibility testing was conducted on pooled fecal samples from weanling and adult commercial meat rabbits taken during both summer and winter months (n = 100, 27 farms), and from pooled laboratory (n = 14, 8 laboratory facilities), companion (n = 53), and shelter (n = 15, 4 shelters) rabbit fecal samples.

At the facility level, E. coli was identified in samples from each commercial rabbit farm, laboratory facility, and 3 of 4 shelters, and in 6 of 53 companion rabbit fecal samples. Seventy-nine of 314 (25.2%; CI: 20.7-30.2%) E. coli isolates demonstrated resistance to >1 antimicrobial agent. At least one E. coli isolate resistant to at least one antimicrobial agent was present in samples from 55.6% of commercial farms, and from 25% of each laboratory and shelter facilities, with resistance to tetracycline being most common; no resistance was identified in companion animal samples. Salmonella enterica subsp. was identified exclusively in pooled fecal samples from commercial rabbit farms; Salmonella enterica serovar London from one farm and Salmonella enterica serovar Kentucky from another. The S. Kentucky isolate was resistant to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, ampicillin, cefoxitin, ceftiofur, ceftriaxone, streptomycin, and tetracycline, whereas the S. London isolate was pansusceptible. Routine use of antimicrobials on commercial meat rabbit farms was not significantly associated with the presence of antimicrobial resistant E. coli or S. enterica on farms; trends towards resistance were present when resistance to specific antimicrobial classes was examined. E. coli was widely prevalent in many Canadian domestic rabbit populations, while S. enterica was rare. The prevalence of AMR in isolated bacteria was variable and most common in isolates from commercial meat rabbits (96% of the AMR isolates were from commercial meat rabbit fecal samples).

Our results highlight that domestic rabbits, and particularly meat rabbits, may be carriers of phenotypically antimicrobial-resistant bacteria and AMR genes, possibly contributing to transmission of these bacteria and their genes to bacteria in humans through food or direct contact, as well as to other co-housed animal species.

Prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in fecal Escherchia coli and Salmonella Enterica in Canadian commercial meat, companion, laboratory, and shelter rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) ad its association with routine antimicrobial use in commercial meat rabbits

Preventative Veterinary Medicine, vol 147, 1 November 2017, Pages 53-57, Jennifer Kylie, Scott A. McEwen, Patrick Boerlin, Richard J. Reid-Smith, J. Scott Weese, Patricia V. Turner, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2017.09.004

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167587716305062

Unforgiving Bunny: 6 sick with rabbit plague in Germany

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We’re going to a birthday party Saturday a.m. at the park across the street from us.

I got to know the mom by hanging out at Sorenne’s school – in a drop-off-and-pick-up way, not a creepy way – and at some point heard she was into roller derby, with her two daughters.

unforgiving-bunnyWith my 5 daughters in (ice) hockey, I sparked up a conversation.

Seems that Unforgiving Bunny – that’s her roller derby handle – is a lawyer by day, and avid roller woman by night.

I thought of Unforgiving Bunny when I read the health authority of the district Mainz-Bingen is currently investigating several diseases of humans with the exciter of the hare plague (tulareämie).

And that’s our other roller derby friend, Abby of Manhattan, Kansas, (left) who got into the game once she moved to France (she was a student of Amy’s and great with little, bald Sorenne. Girl power.)

Hare plague can be transmitted from the animal to humans. A human-to-human transplant is nearly impossible and not known. Tularemia is highly treatable, but can take more severe curves in the individual case.

A common feature of the six affected that they had participated in early October on a vintage in the northern district. A few days later they got high fever and complained of a severe general feeling of illness. Three people had to be treated in the hospital. All have now been released as well again.

The case is unusual because infection with the pathogen in Germany are very rare and heaped even more rarely occur. Man is infected by direct contact with diseased animals, their organs or excretions. The pathogen can also be transferred through contaminated food.

abby-roller-derbyThe Health Authority is assisted in the search for causes of Landesuntersuchungsamt (LUA). It is investigated how the villagers could have come into contact with the pathogen. In parallel, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) examines samples from the vineyard. The focus is on food, rabbits, rabbits and other environmental samples. The bacterium Francisella tularensis triggers a tularemia disease. It usually begins with an ulcer at the entrance of the pathogen, followed by flu-like symptoms such as fever, lymph node swelling, chills, malaise as well as headache and limb pain. The disease can be treated with antibiotics.

Doctors in Mainz-Bingen district are asked also to consider tularemia in patients with high fever and swollen lymph nodes into consideration, especially if the cause of these symptoms is unclear. Suspected cases are also subject to reporting under the Infection Protection Act at the Health Authority.

sorenne-hockey-puck-nov-15

You eat my parsley, I eat you; gruesome rabbit pics spark online attack

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Author Jeanette Winterson has caused a Twitter row after she ate the rabbit who ate her parsley.

bunny1_620x310The author – who was a vegetarian for nine years – posted a somewhat graphic picture of a carcass on her kitchen counter, with the caption: “Rabbit ate my parsley. I am eating the rabbit.”

She proceeded to share pictures of the rabbit being “washed and jointed for the pot,” before being cooked on the AGA with rosemary and thyme.

Next came two shots of her cat eating the entrails.

1The images shocked followers, one of whom wrote: “Before I unfollow you, you make me sick. I will never again read a word you write. Rest in peace, little rabbit.”

My father liked  rabbit when he was growing up in Wales.

Bunny burgers

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Kevin Nealon is great on Weeds and he’s great on this 1994 television pilot: Bunny Burgers.

Eat Me Daily writes that to see "just how low American marketers would go to help us to get a completely ridiculous to your shopping mall," they designed stationary, made a 24-page business plan, hired an actor to play the Japanese billionaire investor, and lured PR flacks to the Ritz Carlton to see if they wanted to represent the company. They ran focus groups and rented a store in a mall in New Jersey, offering bunny burgers to unsuspecting customers, complete with hot pink uniforms and creepy bunny mascot. Said one of the people in the mall: "Who dreamed up this name? It’s like trying to sell Bambi burgers, you know?"

The bunnies are eating the beans in my all-natural garden; the cats need to be more vigilant.

"Yummy yummy got bunny in my tummy / It’s the Bunny Burger taste sensation / Kinda like chicken / Kinda like roast beef / Pledge allegiance to the Bunny Burger nation / They love it in France / Come and give it a chance / Bunny Burger.

 

Bunny blamed for UK cryptosporidium alert

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Experts investigating the contamination of Northampton’s water supply with cryptosporidium have discovered the root of the problem – a small rabbit that found its way into a tank.

Just a harmless little bunny rabbit, like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (right).

A spokesman for Anglian Water said,

"Following extensive investigations, we can now confirm that the source of the cryptosporidium in the water has been linked to a small rabbit, which gained access to the treatment process via a remote ancillary tank shortly before cryptosporidia were detected. More scientific work will be undertaken to understand the unusual type of cryptosporidium found in this case."

Homewoners could be set for a cash rebate of up to £30 to compensate for the loss of water, with residents forced to endure days of having to boil water for drinking and cooking.