Myxomatosis

[hedgerow pete]

hares i was always told dont like mixing with rabbits and they dont like going under ground

 

[greatbritishhoney]

I just thought that if fleas spread it then maybe the same fleas would be common to rabbits and hares.

 

[xgeordie]

Strangely, hares don't get this disease. Seems to be very species specific.

btw - it is illegal to deliberately transmit myxomatosis.

 

[Hivemaker.]

btw - it is illegal to deliberately transmit myxomatosis.

Did they ever catch those responsible for it?

 

[xgeordie]

Don't think so - but it is believed to be deliberately introduced.

 

[milkermel]

to me the main problem with rabbits is that before the 1950 there was a fair few people out after rabbits for a living or as sporting goods, but i dont see that many doing it now so my worry is that as there numbers get bigger the work force to control them is not there any more

As the need increases for professionals to be out there doing the job so more people are doing it and making a living from it. For a long time people have not wanted to pay because jo down the pub will sort it, however it isnt in jos interest to annilate all the rabbits because then he wont have anymore sport. Now that numbers are getting big again, there is a upsurge in people who are now realising that they have to pay someone if they want an effective job done, As there are contracts for rodent control so there are also contract for rabbit control. OH services quite a few private and public grounds using top quality military standard night vision and rifle.

 

[hedgerow pete]

wow, never knew that, thats some serous money invested in gear,

any chance of a few freeby rabbits, yum yum

 

[hedgerow pete]

we see a lot of militry weapons in west brom to!!!!!

92f's swith and western snubs, 12 gauges but many peasant shoot rather than bunnie shooting,

and no i did not spell that with out a h by accident!! lol

 

[bee_leigh]

I've not seen an increase in my part of Derbyshire (at least not yet anyway). Apparently humans can eat myxy rabbits but I certainly don't fancy it!

 

[merylvingien]

i was told many moons ago by a keeper that mixy is an in the ground diesease. because the spres or germs can survive below ground for ages.

Sorry to be blunt, but that is total crap told by someone who has made crap up to suit.

The mixoma virus is a blood transmitted disease very similar to the commone cold and is trasmitted by mosquitoes and fleas.
When i say similar to the common cold, i mean that it is highly developed and capable of mutating into something similar, but different each year!
Thus the humble coney will have to suffer for a few thousand more years before developing any serious resistance to it.

It is supposed by many to have been developed by a french scientist, but again this is crap. The mixoma virus is naturally occuring in the "Jack rabbit" in south america where it only has the same symptoms as the common cold in the population of rabbits there. It was introduced into australia to try and control the plague numbers in the mid 20th century and was hugely successfull as the native population of coneys hadnt come into contact with the virus previously.

Fox numbers do NOT rely on rabbit numbers by any shape or form, this is farmers wishfull thinking. Leave the foxes and let them eat the rabbits LMAO
Foxes will take the easiest food supply available before expending energy chasing fast moving stuff like rabbits, i,e ground nesting birds

 

[fatshark]

Thus the humble coney will have to suffer for a few thousand more years before developing any serious resistance to it.

Evidence suggests that this is not the case. The best data comes following the deliberate introduction of myxoma in 1950 to Australia to control the rabbit population.

In 1950 the case fatality rate was 99%, by 1957 this had dropped to about 90% and by 1994 it was 50%. Studies of myxomavirus and the rabbits clearly demonstrated that the virus had become attenuated i.e. less pathogenic, whereas the rabbits had become more resistant during the four decade period.

Experimental studies demonstrated that both virus and host had changed, for example by comparing the resistance of laboratory vs. wild-caught rabbits to the original virus.

Hosts and pathogens co-evolve surprisingly rapidly ... our rabbits are already partially resistant.

And our myxomavirus is already significantly less virulent than the virus introduced to the UK in 1953.

--
fatshark

 

[hedgerow pete]

in some parts of low land scotland the rabbirs have breed back to the pre mixy numbers and is a serious theat to farming

 

[taff..]

Sorry to be blunt, but that is total crap told by someone who has made crap up to suit.

and if you had bothered reading the thread, you would have seen 2 posts that already explained this

 

[merylvingien]

I have found that myxy seems to go on a 3 year cycle.
As a rural pest controller part of my time is spent ferreting rabbits. It seems to go like this:
bumper rabbit year

The following year will they will be hit hard (virus mutates)

3rd year the rabbit is gaining new immunity to the mutation so starting to recover numbers

then a bumper year.

The statistics you mention when rabbits were first introduced (90% death rate) is correct, but the mortality rate has never really got any better over the last few decades.
Personaly i think its a discusting disease introduced by discusting people.

 

[greatbritishhoney]

Seeing as this thread has got a bit heated, could I just point out for the sake of clarity that my original question was about whether I should intervene and do the "kind" thing or just let nature run it's course. Spreading or propogating mixy was not mentioned by me and would, IMO, be ethically wrong.
If Mixy has any "desirable" side effects in terms of farming then that would just be incidental.

 

[merylvingien]

I would personaly take out any that i see with myxi, simply because i dont like them suffering with it. As for having any affects to the population, kill them, leave them, it wont make a blind bit of difference.

 

[freethorpe bees]

I let one of my dogs kill a young rabbit today which had mixy. A kinder end than the alternative slow death.