Symptoms and Prevention and Treatment Methods of Rabbit Salmonellosis

Caused by Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella enteritidis, it mainly affects pregnant female rabbits, characterized by septicemia, acute death, diarrhea and abortion, and mainly affects female rabbits more than 25 days pregnant.

Symptoms: the incubation period is 1 to 3 days. Acute cases show no symptoms and die suddenly. Most sick rabbits have diarrhea, elevated body temperature, depression, complete loss of appetite, increased thirst, and emaciation. Female rabbits discharge viscous, purulent secretions from the vagina.

Pathological changes: the liver shows diffuse or scattered yellow necrotic foci the size of needle tips, the gallbladder is distended and filled with bile, the spleen is enlarged 1 to 3 times, the large intestine is filled with viscous feces, and the intestinal wall becomes thin.

Prevention and treatment: strengthen feeding management, enhance the resistance of female rabbits, eliminate stress factors that trigger the disease, and promptly cull severely ill rabbits. For milder cases, antibiotics or antibacterial drugs can be used for treatment.

Treatment: (1) Streptomycin 30,000 to 50,000 units/kg body weight by intramuscular injection, twice a day, for 3 consecutive days. (2) Sulfadimidine 100 to 200 mg/kg body weight orally, once a day, for 3 to 5 consecutive days.