Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2 emerged in 2018 and has spread rapidly through wild rabbit populations in Europe and North America, causing mass mortality events with significant welfare implications.
Rabbits dying from RHDV2 experience hemorrhagic liver necrosis and internal bleeding, causing a death within hours to days. While the disease is acute rather than prolonged in individual cases, the scale of mortality — entire local populations dying within days of outbreak — represents significant aggregate suffering. Beyond direct welfare impact on rabbits, the ecological collapse of rabbit prey populations causes secondary welfare harms across the predator communities that depend on rabbits. Vaccination of domestic rabbits prevents their contribution to spread.