The American Beagler Forum

Yesterday I decided to finally harvest some rabbits from my honey hole. We had a late crop this year and most have reached runnin size so I needed to thin out some. Shot 3 and upon opening them up found all 3 to have white (yellowish) spots on their livers. Anyone else run into an epidemic of rabbit fever like this before?
I guess mother nature decided to thin em down also.

I know I wouldn't be eating them. Heard of it before.

sounds like rabbit fever....

don't eat!!!

jack

I've seen a few like that too. I throw them away. The rabbits we keep have good healthy livers. No spots on them

What about a rabbit that has yellow fat. All the fat on this rabbit was a deep dark yellow. Any thoughts on this.

More likely it was just tapeworms in the larvae stage.

I agree with HatterasBob of the white spots being parasitic lesions. That's the most common cause of condemning a liver of a slaughtered animal. I would also agree that the spots were tapeworm induced and I wouldn't have a problem with throwing out the innards and eating the rabbit if it was otherwise in sound flesh. Just be sure to thoroughly cook ALL wild game meat. I've condemned many a animal livers and passed the rest of the carcass for human consumption in my 28 years of being a USDA meat and poultry inspector.

warddog wrote:I've condemned many a animal livers and passed the rest of the carcass for human consumption in my 28 years of being a USDA meat and poultry inspector.

Oh crap... I'm giving up meat...

did it appear drunk maybe it had cirrosiss of the liver jb

Did a search on white liver spots in rabbits. This is what I found.

Our company earns the bulk of its money from controlling rabbits in England and we gut and clean hundreds of rabbits each year that we have shot with a rifle. The white spots are from liverfluke caused by Myxomatosis. Myxomatosis was first discovered in a laboratory population of rabbits in South America in 1896 and was successfully released in to Australia in 1950, followed by its introduction into England in 1953 to control rabbits. It is carried by rabbit fleas and attacks the liver and eyes which almost pop out of the rabbits head before it dies. As the rabbit is blind it cannot eat well and suffers a great deal of weight loss. 98% of all rabbits in the 50's and 60's died. We still have the disease in England but it only seems to effect us every 3/4 years and the survivors are immune. The white spots on the liver seems to be on every rabbit with Myxomatosis and while there is no evidence of humans capturing it as we do not eat them. There is no sign of it in foxes, stoats and birds of prey. While our wild rabbit population is not as high as in Australia our numbers are increasing every year and we have 6 men shooting, trapping, and gassing rabbits all the year round to prevent damage to farmers crops and young tree plantations in the Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire areas.
Regards, John Austerfield, Greenacres Vermin Control

Myxomatosis

MYXOMATOSIS

Myxomatosis is a viral infection which is fatal to rabbits, although it is treatable in tame rabbits if caught early enough, and it was first reported in Uruguay, South America, in 1898. Attempts to use it as a means of controlling wild rabbits have resulted in epidemics. It can be transmitted by any biting or blood-sucking insect, such as a flea or a mosquito.

Insect vectors form a very important method of transmission. A wide number of mosquitoes, fleas, ticks, mites and lice have been shown to be vectors. The insects can feed on the blood of the infected rabbit or more easily on the exposed area of skin lesions. Further more, unlike infected rabbits which die after about ten days after which the possibility of contact infection is reduced, it has been shown that mosquitoes can carry a virus capable of re-infecting rabbits for up to 6 weeks. Rabbit fleas, particularly Spilopsyllus cuniculi, can act a reservoir of infection for several months after rabbits have deserted a burrow.

Taking into account the range of mosquitoes this allows transmission of the myxoma virus over greater areas than are usually travelled by the rabbits alone. This allows the spread of the virus to take place between colonies of rabbits, and in the case of the fleas, allows rabbits from a different colony to become infected be entering a warren where all the occupants have been killed by myxomatosis some months previously.

The symptoms of myxomatosis include a watery discharge from the eyes and swelling of the eyelids and nose. Death follows in about two weeks. Since 1952, it has been illegal to spread the disease in Britain by the use of infected animals. Nevertheless, an epidemic broke out in Britain in 1953. It has been estimated that 99% of the rabbit population of over 60 million died in this epidemic.

Apart from killing off large numbers of the rabbit population, myxomatosis had an indirect effect on the rabbit's predators. The buzzard population in particular suffered a serious setback. Grass on downlands quickly became long since there were fewer rabbits, and attacks by foxes on hen roosts and game became more frequent. The disease is still liable to flare up in some areas, although there are indications that many rabbits are now immune.

The white spots I saw on the liver looked more like thick white bumps that actually went thru the liver not just on the outside surface but within. Out of all the Rabbits we shot so far this season only a couple were found like this.

Another thing we noticed on the liver was yellowish color on the edges. A few of the rabbits have been like that also. Yellow color liver. Not that dark red color.

The rest of the Rabbits have been just fine. Good looking livers and insides. If all the rabbits that were born this year survived we would be over populated. Its a way mother nature balances the rabbit population. Only the heathly survive.

AH YA..... This means my honey hole might not be such a honey hole in a few weeks. The livers on these rrrrabbits were greyish color with tiny white spots all over. Not healthy at all. I was really disappointed when I opened up the second and third rrrabbits. Man I put a good shot on all three too. Ears were peppered with shot meaning maybe 2 or 3 pellets in the back of the head. No shot in the meat. What a shame.

On a lighter note. Same day the dogs took a rrrabbit out thru a picked corn field. Drizzling, sleeghting, freezing but they locked onto this one. Anyway, the rrrabbit decides to take shelter under a house trailer. Before I could get there one of my dogs commensed to ripping off the skirting to get at that rrrabbit. Got under the trailer and made about 3 circles in full cry before the rrrabbit decides it might be better off in the open. Home owners were pretty cool about it. I told them I would bring them some rrrabbit if I ever shot a healthy one.

I'd just use that spot for running purposes only. If they die off then they die off but their could be a possiblity that a few might live. That would be great for the off season.

Try a different spot to hunt. Hopefully those will be healthy rabbits.

I went hunting this morning and bagged a very healthy looking bunny for the skillet. It had a few tapeworm larvae under the skin, scattered along the intestines and one visible on the liver. They're unappetizing to say the least but I was able to remove them. I've never found the larvae between muscle layers but the article in the link below describes that situation. Wish I'd not read that part.....
Tapeworms are creepy enough but they can't possibly compare to the creep factor of a bunch of large worbles sticking their ugly heads out of holes in a rabbits neck!
Check out this link for info on tape worm larvae in rabbits.
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-15 ... --,00.html
Cook those bunnies well and .... enjoy your meal