Prior to 2020, it was not known if this would affect rabbits in North America.
Wildlife officials have warned that the highly contagious disease found in rabbits is currently spreading in many parts of Utah.
According to the Utah Division of Wildlife, rabbit hemorrhage has recently been confirmed in southern and northeastern Utah.
The disease is caused by a calcivirus that infects rabbits, including wild and domestic European rabbits, from which rabbit people in the United States are descended, according to the House Rapid Society, a non-profit rabbit rescue organization.
However, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says it does not affect human health.
It was first seen in China in 1984, but is thought to have originated in Europe. Cases have since been confirmed in Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to 2020, the virus was not known to infect rabbits or rabbits in North America, such as cotton, snowshoe rabbits and zagrobits, and is now causing death in those species, according to the House Rapid Society.
The new virus, RHDV2, has spread rapidly in Europe and the Mediterranean since its appearance in France in 2010.
It is often a “very quick and sudden killer” and rabbits may die without any symptoms after infection. Rabbits died due to internal bleeding, mortality rate ranged from about 40% to 100%, and there was no known treatment, according to the House Rapid Society.
The disease is transmitted by direct contact with an infected rabbit or indirect contact with humans, inanimate objects, rabbit products, food and water or mechanical vectors and pets such as insects, rodents, birds, predators or cats and dogs.
The virus can survive in the environment for several months and can be transmitted through the urine or feces of infected rabbits or from poachers who have eaten infected rabbits, Utah wildlife officials said.
Currently there are eruptions in New York, southwest and northwestern Pacific.
Earlier this year, several parts of Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico were hit.
Authorities instructed residents to look for rabbits that appear to have bleeding from the mouth and to wash and disinfect their hands or any equipment if it is suspected of handling an infected animal.