Rabbit - Critically Endangered

I was taught by another hunter in the 1970s. “Rabbit fever” is just a common name for Tularemia. It is easier to spell and more descriptive. I looked it up and it infects about 1000 people in the US a year. I’ve never seen an infected animal but it’s always worth the time to take precautions.

I am not surprised to hear that in the USA they get this disease, too. I think that all around the world rabbits are dying, because of this disease.
However you give a lot of useful tips in your post. Sure extreme cold should kill the fleas that transmit this disease. Don’t almost all insects die in the cold?
And yes, thoroughly cooked or baked meat should be saver to consume than raw meat. So thanks for making this clear. I didn’t know about the term ‘rabbit fever’ though. So thanks again for teaching me.

Rabbits here get that too. Wear gloves when handling them, check their liver and kidneys for white spots, cook the meat thoroughly.
We also call it “rabbit fever”.
Hunting them after the frost also reduces the chance of catching it from the rabbits’ fleas.

‘Tagesschau’ says that in Nabburg (Bavaria/ Germany) 9 hunters got infected this week with tularemia after preparing some shot wild bunnies for dinner. This disease is transmitted to human beings after contact with an infected animal or even just products that come from said infected animal (flesh, meat, fur, skin etc.). Symptoms in humans are a lack of appetite and pain in many body parts. Especially among bunnies and hares this disease is very common.

The German party “Partei Mensch Umwelt Tierschutz” says that in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany the disease tularemia currently spreads among wild hares and wild bunnies. This disease is lethal to bunnies and hares and can also be transmitted to domesticated rabbits and even to human beings. Thus many citizens of Rhineland-Palatinate say that one shouldn’t try to help a sick hare or bunny and some even say one shouldn’t eat the meat of hares or bunnies from Rhineland-Palatinate anymore – or at least for a while.
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Re-upload 1: By the way you of course could also help by aiding the organisation you can read about on “http://www.sanparks.org/parks/tankwa/”. After all they try to preserve this animal’s habitat, the Karoo desert.
Re-upload 2: The riverine rabbit is the only critically endangered specimen of rabbit.
“http://www.givengain.com/cause/2347/projects/10009/” tries to save this extremely rare mammal. So do the owners of the website “http://www.ewt.org.za/WHATWEDO/OurProgrammes/RiverineRabbitProgramme.aspx”.
In addition I read in a newspaper article that now that Easter is coming soon the Swiss chocolater brand Lindt is donating 0,50€ for each sold chocolate rabbit to a conservation program.