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22

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Agrifood Research and TechnologyCentre of Aragon (CITA); Management of Health, Food Safety and Public Health of TRAGSATEC (INMUNIZADOS1316).

Analysis of institutional authors

Calvete, CarlosCorresponding AuthorCalvo Lacosta, Jorge HugoCorresponding Author

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March 29, 2022
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Changes in European wild rabbit population dynamics and the epidemiology of rabbit haemorrhagic disease in response to artificially increased viral transmission

Publicated to:Transboundary And Emerging Diseases. 69 (5): 2682-2696 - 2022-09-01 69(5), DOI: 10.1111/tbed.14421

Authors: Calvete, Carlos; Capucci, Lorenzo; Lavazza, Antonio; Sarto, Maria P; Calvo, Antonio J; Monroy, Fernando; Calvo, Jorge H

Affiliations

ARAID, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon CITA, Unidad Prod & Sanidad Anim, Avda Montanana 930, Zaragoza 50059, Spain - Author
Ist Zooprofilatt Sperimentale Lombardia & Emilia, OIE Reference Lab Rabbit Haemorrhag Dis, Brescia, Italy - Author
TRAGSATEC, Management Hlth Food Safety & Publ Hlth, Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Zaragoza, CITA, Inst Agroalimentario Aragon IA2, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
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Abstract

European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) populations are severely affected by rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), currently aggravated by the spread of the new lagovirus serotype RHDV2 that replaced the classical RHDV strains (RHDV/RHDVa). This virus causes high mortality in both adult and young rabbits and to date, there is no management tool to effectively reduce its impact on wild rabbit populations. This hinders the success of common strategies, such as habitat management or restocking, in areas where rabbits are native. However, the present study, conducted on enclosed wild rabbit populations, showed that spreading RHDV2 on baits during breeding periods induced infection of young rabbits, reducing mortality rates, presumably due to maternal antibody protection. This reduced the young rabbit mortality hazard by a third, and more juvenile rabbits immune to RHDV2 were recruited into the adult breeding population. Young rabbits from populations in which the force of infection of RHDV2 was increased, however, exhibited considerably higher susceptibility to infection by RHDV than those from non-treated control populations. Since co-circulation of classical RHDVs was ruled out, differences in the type and degree of immunization, the level of cross-protection and/or other unknown factors, such as the circulation of undetected non-pathogenic lagoviruses, arose as possible explanations. This meant that although the present study demonstrated the possibility of successfully modulating the impact of RHD in wild populations, the epidemiological complexity of the situation where several lagoviruses circulate requires additional research to determine final applicability of the proposed method.

Keywords

oryctolagus cuniculusrabbit haemorrhagic diseaserhdvrhdv2wild rabbit conservationAnimalsCaliciviridae infectionsFieldGi.2/rhdv2/bHemorrhagic disease virus, rabbitLagovirusMyxomatosisOryctolagus cuniculusOryctolagus-cuniculusPhylogenyPopulation dynamicsRabbit haemorrhagic diseaseRabbitsRestockingRhdvRhdv2SerogroupVariantVirus rhdvWild rabbit conservationWildlife disease management

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Transboundary And Emerging Diseases due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2022, it was in position 7/144, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Veterinary Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 2.65, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Sep 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-09-18, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 7
  • Scopus: 3
  • Europe PMC: 6
  • Google Scholar: 6

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-09-18:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 19.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 19 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 62.75.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 2 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 8 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Italy.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (Calvete Margolles, Carlos) and Last Author (Calvo Lacosta, Jorge Hugo).

the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been Calvete Margolles, Carlos and Calvo Lacosta, Jorge Hugo.