Myxomatosis
rabbit disease
Myxomatosis is a disease caused by Myxoma virus, a rabbit poxvirus in the genus Leporipoxvirus. The natural hosts are tapeti (forest cottontail, Sylvilagus brasiliensis) in South and Central America, and brush rabbits (Sylvilagus bachmani) in North America. The myxoma virus causes only a mild disease in these species, but causes a severe and usually fatal disease in European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the species of rabbit commonly raised for companionship and as a food source.
Myxomatosis is an example of what occurs when a virus jumps from a species adapted to the virus to a naive host, and has been extensively studied for this reason. The virus was intentionally introduced in Australia, France, and Chile in the 1950s to control wild European rabbit populations.
Cause
Myxoma virus is in the genus Leporipoxvirus of subfamily Chordopoxvirinae. Like other poxviruses, myxoma viruses are large DNA viruses with linear double-stranded DNA. Viral replication occurs in the cytoplasm of the cell. The natural hosts are tapeti (Sylvilagus brasiliensis) in South and Central America, and brush rabbits (Sylvilagus bachmani) in North America. The myxoma virus causes only a mild disease in these species, with signs limited to the formation of skin nodules.
Myxomatosis is the name of the severe and often fatal disease in European rabbits caused by the myxoma virus.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Myxomatosis” as rabbit disease. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as rabbit disease. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1342455. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Myxomatosis” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.