Report of a probable case of Shope papillomavirus in a free-living rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.) in Mexico

Papillomavirus in rabbit in Mexico

Abstract

This paper presents a report of a probable case of Shope papillomavirus in a free-ranging rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.) in Mexico. This genus is distributed throughout the United States and Mexico. Shope papillomavirus has been reported in rabbits in the United States since the 1930s. On August 23, 2025, an excursion was carried out to photograph biodiversity in the Sierra del Tarillal, a mountane area belonging to the Sierra Madre Oriental, which is located on the border of the municipality of Arteaga, Coahuila and Santiago, Nuevo León, northern Mexico, with a pine-oak forest vegetation. On August 23, 2025, at 14:13 hr, with 25 °C and an elevation of 3,215 m above sea level, in the Sierra del Tarillal, a specimen of rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.) was photographed in its natural habitat, with a conical, horn-like protuberance that appears to emerge from the eyelid on the upper part of the right eye. This paper reports a probable case of Shope papillomavirus in a free-ranging rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.) in Mexico. Although it had already been reported the first case of this virus for Mexico, it was in a Sylvilagus floridanus specimen from a museum collection in the United States, which was collected in Jalisco in 1966.