Myxomatosi del coniglio : il contributo del laboratorio diagnostico alla gestione e controllo della malattia sul territorio

Rabbit Myxomatosis: the role of the diagnostic laboratory for the managing and control of the disease on the field. Myxomatosis still represents one of the main health problems of farmed, wild and rural rabbits. This is also due to the complexity of its aetiological agent; in fact, only recent studies have partially shown the genomic organization and function of the 171 proteins, which the myxomavirus, a member of the Poxviridae family, genus Leporipoxvirus, expresses during the various stages of infection. These data have direct and positive effects on the improvements of diagnostic methods. In particular, molecular biology and genotyping techniques make possible to quickly get diagnostic results and to precisely differentiate vaccine from wild strains.