Flystrike

Flystrike, also known as fly strike or myiasis, is a potentially fatal disease that is common in the warmer months of the year. It is caused by several types of insects that will lay eggs in the wounded skin of mammals, and the maggots hatching from the eggs then digest living tissue.

Species that cause flystrike in rabbits include the blowflies Lucilia sericata, Calliphora sp., the grey flesh fly Wohlfahrtia sp., the common screwworm fly Callitroga sp., and from the botfly Cuterebra sp (Western hemisphere only). While not usual, the common house fly (Musca domestica) can also cause flystrike when it lays eggs in matted fur coated in feces, and the hatched maggots rapidly move to an infected wound.