Despite their legendary reproductive capabilities, rabbit populations can nonetheless be decimated by the spread of rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (also known as viral hemorrhagic disease, VHD). RHD (type 1) was first reported in the Netherlands in the 1990s when it caused a massive dent in some wild rabbit
In November 2015 a fox was submitted to the DWHC for post-mortem exam. The fox came from an area in which numerous foxes with mange-like signs had been seen including five others in 2015 alone. A case of scabies (mange caused by the Sarcoptes mite) had been confirmed in a fox from this area in 2014.
The mystery of the severely wounded harbour porpoises has been solved thanks to researchers working at the University of Utrecht Veterinary School’s Pathology Department in conjunction Imares Wageningen UR and the NIOZ. Microscopic analysis of the bite wounds showed that the porpoises were alive when the
As part of research being carried out by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in 2014 the DWHC called on the public to report all findings of dead raccoon dogs. The researchers are investigating the occurrence of several zoonotic parasites (Echinococcus and Trichinella) in raccoon
Post-mortem was performed on a common minke whale at the University of Utrecht after it was found dead on the bow of a ship in Rotterdam harbour. The cadaver was relatively fresh suggesting that it had only been picked up by the boat shortly before it arrived at Rotterdam. Provisional findings point towards the
Researchers at the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (DWHC) working together with members of the Zoogdiervereniging (Dutch organisation for the research and conservation of native mammals) and the RIVM (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment), have confirmed that more than half of the squirrels that
In the summer of 2015, avian malaria was found in a green finch from Son en Breugel in the South of the Netherlands and a pied avocet from Medemblik in North Holland. In 2011 the parasite was found in Read more
In June an inhabitant of the Dutch Wadden Sea Island of Schiermonnikoog spotted a greylag goose that was behaving oddly and distanced from the other birds. The goose was culled and due to the poor nutritional status of the animal and the unusual appearance of lumps on its legs the carcase was submitted to the DWHC
Tularemia in hares
Tularemia has been identified in a hare from the Dutch province of Gelderland that was submitted to the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (DWHC) in June 2015 for post-mortem exam. Since 2011, all dead hares received by the DWHC are routinely tested by the Central Veterinary Institute for the bacteria
In May 2015 a bat that had been submitted to the Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (DWHC) for post-mortem investigation proved to be positive for the bat form of rabies after further testing was carried out at the Central Veterinary Institute (CVI) in Lelystad. This disease is caused by the European Bat Lyssa Virus
