Thanks to the three-year project "Towards the sustainable hunting of the Italian hare (Lepus corsicanus) in Sicily: good practices and monitoring actions", promoted by the Regional Council of the Federcaccia and by the Faunistic and Agro-environmental Studies and Research Office of the national Federcaccia ( with the support of the Laboratory of Applied Zoology of the University of Palermo) and authorized by the Sicilian Region, the first case of Myxomatosis in the Italic hare in Sicily. The killing, which took place during the experimental hunting activity in the municipality of Racalmuto (AG) on 29 November 2018, of an adult male Italian hare weighing only 2,3 kg, which presented skin lesions on the head, eye ( blepharoconjunctivitis) and at the genital level, suspected for Myxomatosis, motivated the safe transfer to the National Reference Center for Viral Diseases of Lagomorphs at the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of Lombardy and Emilia Romagna (Brescia), for specialist diagnostic tests .
The aforementioned Center has recently received confirmation of the positivity of the specimen for the Myxoma virus (MYXV or Poxvirus) by doctors Lavazza, Cavadini and Capucci. The molecular analyzes carried out confirmed that this is the "classic" strain of the Myxoma virus, which affects the wild rabbit. In-depth studies are underway on this first absolute case of Myxomatosis in the Italian hare. Myxomatosis is a viral infectious disease that heavily affects the wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) populations, in which it causes heavy mortality. It was already known, having also been tested in controlled experimental tests, that the infection can affect, but only sporadically, also the European hare (Lepus europaeus) in which, however, it shows less serious lesions than the rabbit. Transmission occurs mainly by contact and through Arthropod vectors (fleas, mosquitoes, etc.), from infected specimens. Myxomatosis is NOT transmitted to humans.
The virus has its natural host in the South American Cottontail (Sylvilagus brasiliensis), in which it causes a benign skin fibroma, located at the injection site. Also the Cottontail or "minilepre" (Sylvilagus floridanus) can become infected in a mild form, but above all it can represent a natural reservoir for the spread of the Myxoma virus to the wild rabbit and its domestic form. In the natural populations of the European hare, cases of myxomatosis have been reported sporadically in the past and always in small numbers, usually associated with outbreaks of the infection in the wild rabbit populations living in the same areas; recently also in Great Britain (2014). Noteworthy are the anomalous cases of Myxomatosis reported in 2018 and 2019 in the Iberian hare (Lepus granatensis) populations of Spain and Portugal, in which they resulted in substantial mortality. In these cases, the transmission of the virus from hare to hare has been demonstrated following a real “species jump” (spillover).
In fact, studies have shown that the infections were due to a recombinant strain of the Myxoma virus called "MYXV Toledo" (characterized by the insertion of four new genes towards the 3 ′ end of the negative polarity genome of the Poxvirus - Dr. Lavazza, com. pers.). The molecular investigations carried out on the Myxoma virus of the Italic Hare of Racalmuto by the National Reference Center for Viral Diseases of Lagomorphs of Brescia, have fortunately excluded that the latter virus is involved, since it is in fact a "classic" strain of MYXV . The positive role played by the hunter as an "environmental sentinel" in the "early warning" is confirmed once again. The "opportunistic surveillance" of wild fauna in the area is based, in fact, on the early detection of anomalous cases of mortality / morbidity, in order to alert the relevant health authorities. A case of this type could hardly have been ascertained without the active involvement of hunters and the direct sampling of individuals in the wild. Given the very positive results of the Project, not only in terms of health monitoring, the action of hunters will also continue in the 2020 / '21 season with the aim of managing the Italian hare resource in Sicily in a sustainable way for present and future generations. , and according to the indications deriving from science (Faunistic and Agro-environmental Studies and Research Office of Federcaccia).