The Biology of the Laboratory Rabbit (PDF)

The Biology of the Laboratory Rabbit is a compendium of papers that discusses the use of the rabbit as an experimental substrate in the scientific process. The collection describes normative biology, research utilization, and rabbit disease. These papers emphasize naturally occurring diseases which affect the value of the rabbit as a research tool. Some papers describe these effects and their impact for investigators engaged in laboratory experimental work on animal medicine. Other papers tackle the value of certain rabbit diseases as models of considerable interest in comparative medicine. Several papers discuss bacterial diseases, viral diseases, protozoal diseases, arthropod parasites, helminth parasites, neoplastic diseases, inherited diseases, nutritional diseases, metabolic, traumatic, mycotic, and miscellaneous diseases of the rabbit. One paper describes a number of diseases that man can acquire from domestic and laboratory rabbits. These include tularemia (which is endemic in wild rabbits and hares), plague (transmitted by fleas), listeriosis (rare in laboratory rabbit colonies), salmonellosis (from rabbit feces), and Pasteurella multocida (common in laboratory and domestic rabbits). The paper notes that laboratory and domestic rabbits are not a major health hazard. The compendium can benefit veterinarians, the medically-oriented investigator, the biologist, the medical and chemical researcher, and others whose work involve laboratory animal care.