Mixie Rabbits

[CushtyJook 1,097]

I don't think it's myxi we've got to worry about these days....it's something else that is flattening the bunnies. IMO

mr darcy what do you think is responsible for low rabbit numbers other than mximatotis ? there is a big bit of green on the main road owned by a garden centre by me now when I was a small boy there would be 20 odd rabbits on this land as you drove past now you are lucky to see one at all

[Guest vin]

 

I don't think it's myxi we've got to worry about these days....it's something else that is flattening the bunnies. IMO

mr darcy what do you think is responsible for low rabbit numbers other than mximatotis ? there is a big bit of green on the main road owned by a garden centre by me now when I was a small boy there would be 20 odd rabbits on this land as you drove past now you are lucky to see one at all

 

 

VHD is some form of Mixy type disease that accounted for a few on one or 2 of our permissions last year.. I found a few whilst walking about that looked like they had been shot on the spot and tippled over..no eye sores like Myxi though.. and the odd one or two were also not skinny like myxi rabbits.

[Jamie m 668]

Vhd Ebola for rabbits . Had a small bit of ground in Sussex that was jumping with rabbits , then one winter I phoned through to make sure it was ok for a day out , the landowner said there were dead rabbits everywhere , oh dear , anyhow it was Barron ones and twos , so I left it two years during this time it spread to other pArts but they weren't as heavily populated . Got the odd one with internal bleeding , but now it's passed through and marched up north , went back to the small bit of ground back end of last season a few of the hedge warrens have never recovered . But they don't get any sun , but plenty in again in the sunny spots ,

[J Darcy 5,871]

 

I don't think it's myxi we've got to worry about these days....it's something else that is flattening the bunnies. IMO

mr darcy what do you think is responsible for low rabbit numbers other than mximatotis ? there is a big bit of green on the main road owned by a garden centre by me now when I was a small boy there would be 20 odd rabbits on this land as you drove past now you are lucky to see one at all

 

I think that it is a new disease, but more than that, I also think that the rabbit, across the UK (as the hare is) is going through a population decline. It is a mystery. Could it be environmental? Or perhaps related tot he shit that we're spraying on crops these days for higher yields? Or maybe a combination of all of them factors.

All I know is that it isn't hunters.

Back in the 80's and early 90's there were many rabbits around here and when we ventured to the Dales it was as if the rabbit numbers were never ending. A true magic pot of porridge. the more you caught, the more you caught. I got 259 rabbits on my own in one month in the dales. I know that isn't an astronomical number, but i was working full time back then and I also had a mate who was catching as many that I didn;t add to my tally.

Nowadays you'd be hard pressed to catch 259 in a YEAR.

Back when I was young my area was a hotbed for working dog men, they're were hundreds of them and everyone was lamping mad.

team after team hit the Dales and the 'tops' around Menwith Hill and still the rabbit numbers stayed high. And nowadays the lads have all jacked and there's hardly anyone here with lurchers and the dales and areas haven't seen any pressure for over a decade and there's still not many.

 

This decline has been happening in a small part for many decades, around here anyway.

 

So the answer is: it's a mystery.

 

I fear that unless something happens drastically within a decade there will be vast tracts of land across the Uk without a single rabbit on. Maybe worse.

 

Maybe there's a lesson for mankind here somewhere......When the lower ends of the foodchain are starting to be effected then we had better take note. Is the decline in butterflies, moths, rabbits, hares,river fish, salmon,mackerel, sandeel, cuckoo, turtle dove, bats etc all related in some way? My thoughts are that it is, though it would take a more intelligent person than me to see where the correlation is....

[OldhamLad 66]

Okay-Bio Agent is the term for Mixi when its used as a poison. Its basically a virus used as a weapon and in our case its poison for the rabbit.

 

This will entail taking a strand off the virus storing it in an aseptic environment(sterile to you and me) in conditions where it can lay dorment (chilling out ) until its activated via realease.

This environment may be within a canister or simply a solution that can be injected into one rabbit or many then releasing those rabbits to spread the disease on.

 

I would estimate myxi virus strains could be kept in a chiller in a lab somewhere for absolutely donkeys years. I would question whether farmers have the capability to do this however im sure theres some stockpiles out there still.

 

 

Hope that helps?

 

Also if your all interested i suggest you read about rcd and vhd. Both new strains of viral diseases that are most likely the cause of much rabbit population decrease this day and age