Rabbits with spectacular growths, nicknamed “Frankenstein”, “demons” or “zombies” by their observers were seen in mid-August in Fort Collins (Colorado). Scientists and authorities specify that it is a known and not dangerous virus.
No, we are not in the video game and television universe of “The Last of Us”, where mushrooms grow on living beings, reducing them to the state of zombie. In Fort Collins, in Colorado, residents have reported the presence of rabbits with strange outgrowth in the face, seeming to form horns. These animals are infected with the papillomavirus shop, a common virus in white -tailed rabbits, which causes warts that can grow and look like wood.
Viral clichés have earned them nicknames such as “Frankenstein rabbits”, “Demons Rabbids” or “Zombie rabbits”. But this condition has been known for a long time and has inspired popular or nourished accounts of scientific research almost a century ago.
The virus could be at the origin of the myth of Jackalope, North American legend describing a rabbit with horns. The disease has also helped to better understand the link between certain viruses and cancers, such as the human papillomavirus associated with cervical cancer.
This morning, a virus
This “lapine” pathology was discovered in the 1930s by Professor Richard E. Shope, of the Rockefeller University. The recent observations in Fort Collins, 105 kilometers north of Denver, aroused many online testimonies.
Kara Van Hoose, spokesperson for the Natural Parks Management Agency and Wild Life “Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW)”, based in Fort Collins, confirmed well to the Associated Press that the CPW had received some calls for said rabbits. To answer it, she explains that it “is not uncommon to see infected rabbits, especially in summer, when the chips and ticks that spread the virus are the most active”.
The virus is transmitted between rabbits but not to other species, “including humans and pets,” she said. The growths, similar to warts, are only problematic when they develop on the eyes or mouth and annoy food. “The animal’s immune system is able to fight the virus and, in this case, the growths will disappear,” she adds. What reassure some people worried about their health, or of course for that of the rabbits concerned.
Posted on August 19 at 9:10 a.m., François Bouttemy, 6medias