HARE MED HORN

2013-07-02 Is this the mythical 'jackelope'? Bunny filmed hopping around Minnesota yard with rare infection that makes rabbits grow horns A video of a rabbit with a rare disease that causes gruesome-looking growths to protrude from its head has attracted over 200,000 views online in less than a week. Dubbed ÔFrankenstein', the animal was first seen by the Boettcher family in Mankato, Minnesota, early last month, hopping around in their backyard. The rabbit is infected by the cottontail papilloma virus (CRPV), also known as Shope papilloma virus, which causes tumours to grow on or near the animal's head. The tumours can eventually become large enough to interfere with the rabbit's ability to eat, causing them to die of starvation. The college student finally got close enough to take the first pictures and video of Frankenstein last week. He and his younger brother, Zander, 15, made a Ôfunny documentary' on the rabbit as it hopped through their garden. In the video, Gunnar tells the viewers he has seen a 'monster rabbit'. 'It's crazy, it's got monster spikes sticking out of his head, we don't know what this thing is capable of,' he says as the video zooms in on the rabbit. Stories and illustrations of horned rabbits have appeared in scientific books dating back many years, such as the Tableau encyclopédique et méthodique from 1789. The Shope papillomavirus, which provided the first mammalian model of a cancer caused by a virus, takes its name from Dr Richard E. Shope, who discovered it in the 1930s. His research has been very beneficial to humans and has been used as a model for human papillomaviruses, such as the HPV vaccine, which was developed based on and incorporating research done using the virus as a model. It has also been used to investigate antiviral therapies. ©Gunnar Boettcher/Exclusivepix Photo: Gunnar Boettcher/Exclusivepix / ExclusivePix / SCANPIX / kod 10481 ref: ***BETALBILD***