Awhile back someone asked about a disease that people could get from rabbits that started with a "T" and I found this in the back of one of my rabbit books. My book only says it is a lymph node disease.
I've never butchered any domestic rabbits to know how bad they are to have tularemia but I have hunted and killed quite a few wild rabbits and they are common to have tularemia. When removeing their intestines and you happen to see white or black spots on the liver then it may have tularemia. They say if you use gloves to remove the intestines and wash them out then they are still good to eat. Supposedly it is only dangerous if you have a scratch or cut on your hand and it comes in contact with the infected organs. But we have never taken the chance, seems we always have dried chapped hands and after walking through briar patches we have scratches as well. Whenever we would find one with it we would discard the whole animal.
I did a search on it and it can be transmited by fleas, ticks and blood to blood contact. I remember being told by the hunters in the family that they always checked the liver for spots. I didn't understand why back then. It sounds pretty bad for a person to get it.
