The hypothesis that the increasing prevalence of cases of paratuberculosis in beef suckler herds in the Tayside area of Scotland was associated with greatly increasing numbers of wild rabbits on some affected farms was tested. In the spring of 1994 rabbits were received from three farms where Johne's disease had been diagnosed and from one farm where the condition had not been recorded. Microbiological and histopathological investigations showed that rabbits on all four sites were infected with and had lesions consistent with paratuberculosis. The preliminary results of a more extensive survey of wild rabbits collected from stock farms across Scotland conducted during 1995/96 will also be presented.