Preventing and Controlling Rabbit Colibacillosis

1 How Infection Occurs

E. coli is everywhere in nature, so the disease can appear in any season. Poor management, spoiled feed, sudden feed or weather change, and dirty housing disrupt the normal gut flora and lower resistance, letting resident E. coli multiply sharply and cause disease. It can also follow coccidiosis or other illness.

All ages are susceptible, but cases concentrate in 1 to 4 month olds, especially around weaning, with high rates of sickness and death; adults rarely fall ill.

2 Symptoms

The hallmark is watery or jelly-like diarrhea with severe dehydration, ending in death. Early signs: dullness, rough coat, poor appetite, bloated belly, and small stringy droppings with gelatinous mucus. As it worsens, watery diarrhea soils the anus and hind legs, with cold limbs, teeth grinding, drooling, sunken eyes, and rapid wasting; death often follows within days.

The most acute cases die suddenly with no warning. Newborn kits mostly get acute disease around 5 to 7 days, passing yellow-white watery stool and bloating with high mortality. Unweaned kits and young rabbits show severe diarrhea with pale yellow watery, mucus-laced stool.

3 Prevention and Control

Treatment is weak once the disease starts, so prevention leads. Manage carefully: most cases trace to feed, so balance the diet with enough fiber and controlled energy and protein, check feed for mold before use, never switch feeds abruptly (ease changes over a week), and keep housing dry and clean.

Keep feed and environment clean. Disinfect hutches on a schedule, since E. coli is easily killed by common disinfectants, and stop mosquitoes, flies, and rats from contaminating feed and water.

Add prophylaxis for weanlings: mix furazolidone, olaquindox, norfloxacin, or chloramphenicol into feed, or add 0.5 to 1% probiotic preparation for 5 to 7 days. In herds with recurring colibacillosis, vaccinate with a polyvalent or combined inactivated E. coli vaccine.