Is this safe? Pictures! : Meat Rabbits

Found this in a rabbit I was butchering. Is this safe?

Also, she just had kits, what’s the likelihood that they have it?

Also, I fostered her kits out (she’s a terrible mom, hence the reason she got butchered, what’s the likelihood that they pass it on.

I think I may have just thrown an ember in a hayloft

MaggieJ wrote:No need to panic, Chubbybunnies. Nodules like that one the liver are a sign of hepatic coccidiousis. You should discard the liver and perhaps the kidneys as well, but the rest of the meat is perfectly safe. (Don't feed the diseased organs to other animals either.)

I think most people who have raised rabbits for meat have seen this at one time or another. There are treatments for coccidiosis but I'm not up on them. Likely Michaels4gardens will be able to advise you on that.

Here in Ontario with our cold winters, parasitic diseases seem to be less common. My rabbits were fed a natural diet with plenty of weeds that have medicinal properties, so that may have helped too. Still, I've seen similar nodules from time to time.

I would think, however, that in a hot, humid environment like Florida that it might be necessary to take more stringent measures. Coccidiosis can kill kits and weanlings very quickly, but often adults will show no sign of being infected.

Here's a link to give you more information:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_disease ... occ_en.htm

Unfortunately, when I saw it, I discarded everything. This being my 3 cull, I wasn’t taking any chances. I remember reading about the disease that is transferable to humans having white spots on the liver as well if I remember correctly.

Anyways, I’ll know for the future. I don’t keep any organs anyways, so that is not a problems

I haven't heard of anything that could pose a danger to a healthy human (someone with suppressed immune system might be another topic). And that is when you eat the meat raw.

If you follow normal kitchen hygiene and cook the meat properly there isn't a problem with rabbit meat, I would be more worried about chicken from the supermarket.

Coccidosis is quite host specific, rabbits can have the Eimeria strains, not a pathogen for humans.

Preitler wrote:I haven't heard of anything that could pose a danger to a healthy human (someone with suppressed immune system might be another topic). And that is when you eat the meat raw.

If you follow normal kitchen hygiene and cook the meat properly there isn't a problem with rabbit meat, I would be more worried about chicken from the supermarket.

Coccidosis is quite host specific, rabbits can have the Eimeria strains, not a pathogen for humans.

The disease I was referring to is tularemia. It’s pretty rare, but with my rabbits being in a colony on the ground, figures I would check it out. Better safe than sorry

I've only heard of one case of somebody getting tularemia from a domestic rabbit, and that was from a bite, not the meat. It's mostly found in wild rabbits. Colonies on the ground are prone to coccidia and if one rabbit had it, its likely more do. I've heard of people treating it with corid but I forgot the method or dose.

you can also feed onion tops/green onion/etc (really anything in the allium family) to them to treat coccidia. you need to do this regularly for a colony though since the parasite is usually found on the ground and they'll just keep getting it.

coccidiosis is very common in most livestock,[chickens, rabbits, calves, goats, etc:- it is something to watch for, and treat, you will not be able to get it out of the soil as it can rest there 50 years [according to some researchers] People who raise rabbits in all wire cages, up off the ground, and feed only pellets, also have had major outbreaks of cocci.
As mentioned above it can be treated with allium family plants, when in Florida my favorite was garlic chives as it will grow well year-round. Both hepatic and intestinal coccidiosis take a lot out of rabbits , making them grow slowly, and more susceptible to heat, stress, and other disease. Does with hepatic coccidiosis will usually have trouble , or take a long time raising a litter of kits. Healthy adult animals become resistant to intestinal cocci, ... but still pass on it to their young.. young rabbits eat the feces of the mother as one of their first foods, they will be infected at an very early age.
In my experience, coccidiosis is the most likely cause of weaning enteritis, as well as most other GI issues.
Corid is effective against many strains of cocci, but not all. [the instructions are available on line] I have used it when I had no garden / no alliums. I prefer to use garlic chives as a part of my feeding program, when doing so, I have very little trouble with any kind of "disease".....

I like me some rabbit liver and onions! But if I see a liver that doesn't look healthy even some that do I have caught a lot of catfish on rabbit liver. Just a idea so it's not completely wasted.