Myxomatosis

[Ideation 8,216]

Just woke up, can't remember off top of my head, but think it was meant to be 'invented' initially by a french doctor?

[lapin2008 1,587]

I can see your thinking behind this but it would have to be one clever disease/virus to come to the conclusion that the rabbit population has come to to a desired level to become active?

 

as to been man made?

I obviously didnt mean that the virus awakens itself when in need of controlling, more that it spreads very quickly in areas where numbers are greater. Same as you are less likely to catch a cold if you for example work alone then if you work in a busy open plan office...

[fcuktheban 140]

I lamp at a golf course and bush right by it, strange mixi is very prevalent on the green but in the woods nearby the rabbits seem unaffected. There are fewer rabbits on the range so I would assume it was introduced

[Malt 379]

I think it's a strain of some flu like virus that originated in South America. The animals there built up a natural resistance to it over millions of years, but it turned out to be deadly to rabbits. It was released on accident from a lab in France, then spread naturally. It was then imported to Australia intentionally to deal with the massive rabbit problem there.

 

I read somewhere a few years back that rabbit numbers are something like 90% lower now than they were pre mixy. Make you wonder what it would have been like rabbiting before they were hit..

[Mac 30]

Discovered in 1896 in Uruguay

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis