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Hungary’s First ha-MYXV Outbreak Was Confirmed in 33 of 37 Targeted Hare Samples

Three European hares running
Research · Disease, parasites & microbiology

Hungary’s first confirmed epidemic outbreak of hare-adapted recombinant myxoma virus (ha-MYXV) was documented in European hares (Lepus europaeus) in October 2025. Myxoma virus is a poxvirus that causes myxomatosis; the hare-adapted form is recombinant, meaning its genome contains genetic material brought together from previously distinct viral variants. Researchers examined 37 animals from areas where unusual hare mortality or infection was already suspected; 33 were positive by multiplex qPCR, a test that detects several viral DNA targets in the same reaction and can help identify the recombinant form.

The resulting 89.2% positivity applies to this targeted outbreak sample, not to the Hungarian hare population as a whole. Sampling took place from 7 to 28 October in counties on the Little Hungarian Plain and Great Hungarian Plain. Some animals were found dead through passive surveillance and others came from normal hunting activities in areas where game managers suspected ha-MYXV.

Positive cases appeared across Hungary within days

The first positive animal came from Hegyeshalom in western Hungary on 7 October. By 13 October, positive cases had also been confirmed in eastern and south-eastern parts of the country. The authors interpret the timing and geography as consistent with the virus entering Hungary from Austria following an outbreak near Vienna.

They also argue that the speed of the west-to-east pattern is difficult to explain by arthropod vectors alone. Mosquitoes and other insects remain possible transmission routes, but the paper also discusses direct contact and human-associated movement of the pathogen as potential contributors. These routes were not individually measured in the study.

Clinical signs varied among the examined hares

Visible signs included conjunctivitis, skin lesions and swelling around the eyelids or genital region, while some animals lacked obvious external signs. A limited comparison also found poorer body condition in some infected adult hares from western Hungary, but the sample was too small to describe population-wide effects.

The researchers emphasise that morbidity, mortality and survival at population level in Hungary were still unknown. Their strongest conclusion is that ha-MYXV had established an epidemic outbreak across widely separated parts of the country. They call for nationwide monitoring to determine how the virus spreads and what repeated outbreaks mean for European hare populations.

Sources and image credit

  1. Bende, A., Hegyi-Nándori, A., László, R., Marsai, M., Örkényi, A., Malik, P., Jánoska, F., & Bánáti, L. (2026). The first confirmed outbreak of recombinant myxomatosis virus in the brown hare (Lepus europaeus P.) population in Hungary. Transboundary and Emerging Diseases, 2026, 3360897.

Image: Tiia Monto / Wikimedia Commons — three live European hares running in Jyväskylä, Finland, 22 May 2019; representative species image, not animals from the Hungarian outbreak; original uncropped file · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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