In this study, we evaluated a virus-like particles (VLPs) derived from rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) for the development of vaccine against RHDV infection.The VP60 gene was cloned and inserted into a pSMK expression vector, containing a small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) tag which can promote the soluble expression of heterologous proteins in E.coli cells.After expression and purification of the recombinant VP60 protein and cleavage of the SUMO tag, we found that the RHDV VP60 protein has self-assembled into VLPs which had a similar shape and a smaller size comparative to the authentic RHDV capsid.Subsequently,antigenicity and immunogenicity of VLPs were studied.The results showed that RHDV-specific responses were obviously induced in rabbits and all rabbits in VLPs group survived while the negative control groups died within 72 h post-infection,indicating that VLP-based RHDV vaccine can be used as a promising RHDV vaccine candidate.