INFECTIOUS PAPILLOMATOSIS OF RABBITS : WITH A NOTE ON THE HISTOPATHOLOGY

A papilloma has been observed in wild cottontail rabbits and has been found to be transmissible to both wild and domestic rabbits. The clinical and pathological pictures of the condition have been described. It has been found that the causative agent is readily filtrable through Berkefeld but not regularly through Seitz filters, that it stores well in glycerol, that it is still active after heating to 67°C. for 30 minutes, but not after heating to 70°C., and that it exhibits a marked tropism for cutaneous epithelium. The activities and properties of the papilloma-producing agent warrant its classification as a filtrable virus. Rabbits carrying experimentally produced papillomata are partially or completely immune to reinfection and, furthermore, their sera partially or completely neutralize the causative virus. The disease is transmissible in series through wild rabbits and virus of wild rabbit origin is readily transmissible to domestic rabbits, producing in this species papillomata identical in appearance with those found in wild rabbits. However, the condition is not transmissible in series through domestic rabbits. The possible significance of this observation has been discussed. The virus of infectious papillomatosis is not related immunologically to either the virus of infectious fibroma or to that of infectious myxoma of rabbits.