The Bunny Box

Myxomatosis

Background and Information

Myxomatosis was first introduced to Australia in 1950 to control the wild rabbit population. It is mainly spread by blood-sucking insects, such as fleas and mosquitos but also from skin lesions. According to papers available the original virus killed about 99% of infected rabbits. However rabbits that did not die produced a high level of antibodies and any does (female rabbits) that survived passed these antibodies on to the kittens. There is also an accumulation of genetic resistance that has built up within the wild rabbit population, so the figures are much lower today.

"In the 1950s, myxomatosis killed most rabbits, perhaps as much as 99% of the population. Today, myxomatosis is still having an effect but the kill rate is often less than 50%"

From the CSRIO's - 'Field handbook for land managers in Australia'

For more information on the fight against Myxomatosis world wide visit the Coalition against Myxomatosis and other rabbit diseases website

How is it spread

The usual way is through blood sucking insects such as mosquito or fleas. All species of mosquito will transmit the disease. The type that feeds from several animals in the evening can infect up to 10 rabbits. The mosquito can remain infective for up to 7 months in cold weather. However since mosquitos are not active for the full year, the European rabbit flea was introduced in 1969 to further spread the disease.

The flea only breeds on pregnant rabbits, but will spread Myxomatosis readily as it moves from rabbit to rabbit. It can remain alive in an empty burrow for several months and can live on pasture for 2-3 weeks.

Symptoms

Symptoms start to appear between one and three weeks following infection. The eyelids begin to swell, eventually closing over the eye. Swelling also occurs in other parts of the body, in particular the base of the ears and genitalia. There is often discharge from the eye and nose and affected rabbits develop fast, laboured breathing. Death usually occurs within two weeks in most cases.

Scientific Issues

The Australian Government has made it illegal for any rabbit owner to vaccinate their pet against Myxomatosis. The argument is that immunity may pass to the wild rabbit population, which would reduce the effectiveness of the disease. This reasoning is redundant. There is evidence that wild rabbits have built their own immunity to the disease as shown from these quotes from a paper produced by the Australian Department of Primary Industries:

"As the field strains of myxomatosis are no longer as virulent as the original releases the disease can no longer be considered a reliable control agent for rabbits."

"Releasing a virulent strain of myxomatosis does not guarantee that an outbreak will occur. There may have been a non-virulent strain previously endemic in the area giving immunity to the majority of rabbits present."

Even if one accepts the effectiveness of the virus, a number of other environmental conditions are necessary for the use of Myxomatosis to be practical. From the same paper by the Australian Department of Primary Industries:

"When poisoning is impractical, a virulent strain of the disease can be introduced to a specific area. Its success depends on a large rabbit population, the absence of field strain myxomatosis since before the previous breeding season and the presence of rabbit fleas to spread the disease."

(Source Document: Rabbit Control - Myxomatosis by the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment)

There is also little evidence that immunity from the vaccine, made from the Shopes Fibroma Virus, can spread to other rabbits. In UK and Europe, where the vaccine is available, there have been no signs of a decline in the disease and there is still a great need to vaccinate pets. The British distributers (Intervet) state that:

"...the virus (Shope fibroma) does not spread readily from one animal to another and all rabbits in a group should be individually vaccinated"

Social Issues

It has been noted by a number of people that the Governments of today would not introduce Myxomatosis because the general public would not stand for it. Mike Braysher who is a Principal Research Scientist managing the Vertebrate Pest Program for the Bureau of Resource Sciences, produced a paper which stated:

"For example, while Australia was able to introduce myxomatosis to control rabbits in the late 1940's, public concern in New Zealand was such that in 1993, government decided against introducing this disease."

In 1985 Peter Barber, State Director of RSPCA in Victoria said:

"If the Victorian Government were to attempt to introduce Myxomatosis now it would have a real argument on its hands and it would lose. Death by Myxomatosis is slow and cruel."

It should be noted that even in 1950 not everyone was in favour of the intial release. Even then there were people who thought the disease was a cruel and there was concern among those who owned or bred domestic rabbits.

There has been a big push in Australia to replace the Easter Bunny with the Easter Bilby. The Bilby is an endangered small Australian native marsupial. A portion of the sales of chocolate Bilby's was meant to be used to help conserve the Bilby population, something the majority of people, including myself, would support. What wasn't so well publicised was that the Anti Rabbit Research Foundation (formerly ARRF, now known as the Foundation for Rabbit Free Australia), has full licensing ownership of the trademark 'Easter Bilby'. This Foundation is behind the drive to use "solutions" such as myxomatosis and RHD.

This means that, basically, the Easter Bilby is a marketing campaign to fund research that results in inhumane and ineffective ways of controlling the rabbit population. Thousands of rabbits are doomed to suffer cruel deaths from their research... think about that next time you buy the Bilby instead of the traditional eggs, chickens, or bunnies.

You can read more about this at

Myxomatosis and Easter

CSIRO support campaign

What you can do

Please don't allow this cruelty to continue. Only public opinion will finally pressure the Australian Government to allow the vaccine to be made readily available to pet rabbit owners. I will endeavour to keep all links below up to date, but please contact me if you have any problems.

Sign the petition at the

House Rabbit Society's of Australia website

Write to the following people asking that they lobby for the vaccine to be made available in Australia:

(these addresses are up to date as of the 6 January 2004)

RSPCA

Australian Veterinarian Association Small Animal Representative
Liz Walker

PO Box 243 BONDI NSW 2026

Phone (work): (02) 9538 6736 Fax: (02) 9538 6733

State Representative can be found here

Policy Council by State

and here

State Presidents and Secretaries