So far in 1995 and 1996 there have been more than 500 outbreaks of VHD confirmed. This time last year there was only one, and the explosion to 200 outbreaks occurred in September. Obviously if an explosion of a similar scale occurs this year there will be absolute carnage.

*PLEASE* get your rabbits vaccinated against VHD *now*. There are two vaccines available in the UK: Cunical (Rhone Merieux) lasts 6 months and Cylap (Websters Animal Health) lasts 12 months. Cunical is cheaper, and many veterinarians are happy to let owners inject their own rabbits. Cylap is more expensive, and being oil-based, is more likely to cause a local reaction and also rather dangerous is accidentally injected into the human hand, so veterinarians usually prefer to do the injecting themselves.

Both vaccines come in vials of 10 doses which must be used within a day of opening. If you only have one rabbit, either club together with other owners or try to persuade your veterinarian to ring up other rabbit-owning clients. Expect to pay 11-15 pounds for 10 doses of Cunical (if you inject it yourself) or 24-30 pounds for 10 doses of Cylap plus cost of veterinarian visit. Some veterinarians are unfortunately charging exploitative prices for the vaccine, so if needs be shop around.

If anyone is not familiar with VHD the facts are as follows:

- Disease first entered UK in 1992.

- Outbreaks have recently been confirmed in Cumbria, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The entire United Kingdom is now an infected area.

- Notifiable Disease: any sudden deaths with no obvious cause *must* be reported to MAFF. If disease is confirmed, all *unvaccinated* rabbits on premises will be destroyed. There have been several rabbit rescue premises affected, tragically, and of course all the rabbits then died.

- It is *impossible* to isolate your rabbit from all sources of infection. The virus can be spread in hay; water; feed; on clothes; by birds; airbourne; bird-bourne; insect bourne.

- Until rabbits are vaccinated, keep them indoors; do not allow them to play in the garden; keep dogs and cats that may have contact with wild rabbits away; eliminate vermin from hutch areas etc.

- Keep in touch with local farmers and ask them to tip you off to any sudden decreases in the local wild rabbit population.

- URBAN AREAS ARE EQUALLY AT RISK

- Affected areas so far: Coastal areas from Humberside right round via east Anglia, Kent, Sussex, Devon (very very bad), Cornwall, and up into Wales. There have been outbreaks in Stafford and some other more inland counties too.

- If necessary *insist* to your veterinarian that you want your rabbits vaccinated. THIS DISEASE KILLS RABBITS in a most awful way; MOVES FAST; and outbreaks can "jump" hundreds of miles.... which suggests that the disease is actually widespread across the country.

- Symptoms: in the most acute form the rabbits just drop down dead. In the next most acute form, you may see difficulty breathing, anorexia, obviously unwell, wobbly on their feet, bleeding from nose and mouth and anus, frothing at mouth, spasms and screaming prior to death. Please, please protect your rabbits now before it is too late!

Myxomatosis

East Anglia, Lincolnshire and low-lying areas with standing water are always at risk of myxi and any rabbits in these areas really ought to be vaccinated (Nobi-vac Myxo). I have heard reports of severe outbreaks of myxi in wild rabbits around Welwyn in Hertfordshire also. BEWARE AND VACCINATE if myxi is in the locality, especially if your rabbit lives outdoors or your cat hunts!

Finally.....