Staphylococcal infections in rabbit does on two industrial farms

The main reasons for culling adult rabbit does on two Spanish rabbit farms were investigated for a year. The most important conditions were mastitis (33·3 per cent), followed by subcutaneous abscesses (9·9 per cent) and pyometra (8·7 per cent). Staphylococcus aureus infections were the most severe problem, the organism being isolated from 69·2 per cent of infected animals. Pasteurella species were more prevalent in cases of pyometra and pneumonia. Two strains of S aureus were identified by using polymorphism of the coagulase gene as the criterion. One of these strains was responsible for the majority of the staphylococcal infections and was isolated from several pathological processes.