North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dr. Lucky Pittman" <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Domestic rabbits pose almost zero risk of harboring or transmitting
tularemia to humans who may handle or process them.
  
You're at much greater risk of being infected by receiving a tick bite
courtesy of your roaming pet cat or dog bringing them into the house than
you are from dressing and processing domestic rabbit carcasses.  
For instance, in a 1998 tularemia outbreak in South Dakota, 79% of infected
persons reported tick bites; none reported any contact with a rabbit.

While I've harvested as many of the destructive little cottontails as I
can(they wreaked havoc on my blueberries and hickory seedling beds last
winter), I'll admit that I probably should wear gloves when dressing them
out, but I still do them bare-handed. 
 
Being a veterinary pathologist, I always give at least a cursory examination
to any and all entrails I remove.  I suppose that if I saw the
characteristic liver lesions in a bunny I'd just dressed, I'd probably
contact my physician - or at least let my wife know that if I became
seriously ill, to make sure that Dr. House and crew knew about that
exposure, so that they could skip the first half-dozen or so
misdiagnoses.8>)

Louis L. "Lucky" Pittman, Jr., DVM
Veterinary Pathologist/Section Head
Murray State University
Breathitt Veterinary Center
PO Box 2000, 715 North Drive
Hopkinsville, KY 42240
Office: 270-881-3442



-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Michele Stanton
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2011 8:11 AM
To: 'North American Fruit Explorers'
Subject: [NAFEX] eating rabbits and tularemia

I have thought about eating some of our surplus rabbits, but was under the
impression that Tularemia (which can be contracted through handling wild
rabbits) was a significant enough issue in the Midwest that I have avoided
direct contact.

Thoughts, anyone?

Michele