Small animals and poultry

Dates to remember:

May 1 --- Deadline to sign add or delete 4-H projects.

July 6 --- Deadline to pre-enter all poultry and small animals for the Colfax County Fair.

Poultry Exhibitors

You must either have a receipt of purchase and a NPIP Number from the dealer or hatchery where the birds were purchased or else have the birds tested BEFORE the Colfax County Fair. If the birds are home-raised, then you must have the birds tested. This applies to all poultry such as chickens and turkeys, but not to waterfowel such as ducks or geese. Call the Colfax County Extension office to arrange testing.

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RABBIT DISEASE ALERT

FROM: Rosie Nold, Ph.D., Extension Youth Specialist

4-H staff:

I've recently had a couple questions about a disease known as RHD (Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease) or VHD (Viral Hemorrhagic Disease, or Rabbit Calicivirus Disease. If you have American Rabbit Breeders Association members in your area, they may have already heard of this, but many of our rabbit project members may know nothing of this.

I have visited with the State Veterinarian's Office, as well as the USDA Veterinary Services office. Here is what I can tell you and what we should alert our rabbit project members to:

1.) The disease most often fatal. In a group of 27 rabbits in Iowa that contracted the virus, 25 died and the other 2 were euthanized to prevent spread of the virus.

2.) It is highly contagious.

3.) There is no cure.

4.) There is no vaccine that is legal in the United States.

5.) Infected rabbits usually show symptoms within 24 - 48 hours. Symptoms include high fever, but there may be few other clinical signs.

6.) Rabbits that do survive may be carriers and shed the virus for up to 4 weeks.

7.) At this time there are no recommendations from the State Veterinarians Office, partially because there is no reliable, cost-effective test to determine if an animal is a carrier.

The following website has a fact sheet and a question/answer sheet produced by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service:

http://www.aphis.usda.gov/oa/rcd/rcd.html

That's about all I can tell you about this disease. At this time, I think our approach should be to make people aware of it, but try not to cause panic (as I've gathered there is already some of that present among the rabbit breeders).