Umer Farooq¹, Riasat Wasee Ullah^{1, 2*}, Asma Latif ^{1, 2}, Aamer Bin Zahur ¹, Javid Iqbal Dasti ², Hamid Irshad ^1
1Animal Health Research Laboratories, Animal Sciences Institute, National Agricultural Research Centre, Park Road Islamabad, Pakistan ;²Department of Microbiology, Quaid–i–Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan
*Corresponding author: riasatwasee252@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT
Laboratory animals like mice, rabbits, guinea pigs are the key experimental animals in research laboratories. This report is about the domestic angora rabbits which were kept at Animal Health Research Laboratories (AHRL), National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC) Islamabad for research purpose. Suddenly death occurred in two of rabbits. These rabbits were about ten (10) weeks of age. For proper diagnosis, necropsy was performed in two rabbits and this was diagnosed that these were died of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease (RHD) which is caused by a Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV); a member of genus Lagovirus from Calciviridaefamily. The disease is first time reported in Pakistan in angora rabbits kept for research purpose.

Key Words: Rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus; Gross Pathology; Laboratory animals; Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease