The humble rabbit and myxomatosis

[jetro 5,349]

The deliberate introduction of the killer disease Myxomatosis to Irish rabbits. 

Rabbits were probably brought to Ireland by the Normans in the twelfth century, they soon spread all over this island of ours and went on to become a valued source of food and income for the less well off, the small farmers, urban workers, farm labourers and those without full time employment. 

The thriving Irish rabbit population estimated at 40 million fed many a poor child, and was a staple source of meat and additional income for lowly paid workers and struggling small farming families.  Some accounts say up to half the rabbit population was trapped every year, in what was a prospering industry benefitting many people. 

 Tales abound of young lads and girls setting snares in the evening and up at the crack of dawn to harvest their reward, stories tell of children of the rural poor being able to get to secondary school in the local town on a bicycle purchased from sale of rabbits. They were often sold door to door for a few pence, ensuring poor neighbours would have a tasty meal.  

Shops in small towns would buy and sell rabbits trapped by casual and full time trappers. The business community was involved too, and exported Irish rabbits fed the workers of British industrial towns during the World Wars, their furs were also valued and sold. Income from rabbits and their meat as food was of great importance to millions, and the abundant creatures created a thriving industry throughout the country. One account tells of trappers getting two shillings per rabbit at a time when a pint of Guinness only cost one shilling. 

However, not everyone was happy with the little grazer, their food source often being the same as cattle and sheep, they could decrease  profits of big wealthy farmers. Also they have a fondness for tasty young plants so arable farmers were oftentimes at war with the local rabbits too. 

The Irish Farmers Journal and leading members of the National Farmers Associated campaigned for something to be done about the rabbits. In 1954, a Doctor MacCooper of Wye College in Kent  was contacted by Irish farming people and he supplied the skin of a rabbit killed by Myxomatosis.  A big farm outside Carlow town became the epicentre for the spread of Myxomatosis in Ireland. Farmers came from all over the country to get diseased rabbits which were then released on their farms. Some say, skins of diseased dead rabbits were enthusiastically rubbed into the faces of live trapped ones, which were then let go, bringing the disease into their little underground homes. By the end of the year, the horrible, highly contagious disease had spread to every corner of the island. The abundant rabbit population was mostly wiped out, some virus resistance developed over the years, but frequent recurrence of Myxomatosis break outs keeps rabbit numbers firmly in check.

Myxomatosis is a disease caused by the Myxoma virus. For many rabbits, the suffering can last for a couple of weeks. It usually begins with lethargy, loss of appetite, fever, appearance of lumps, swelling around the head, eyes and genitals. More lumps form all over the little creature followed by open sores, and weeping eyes along with fluid discharge from ears, nose and mouth. The open sores become painfully infected  and associated respiratory problems cause the already stressed  little rabbits to gasp and struggle for breath.  The swelling eyelids lead to blindness, and stories tell of local people coming across pitiful scenes of blind, swollen, weeping rabbits covered in open sores, slowly lumbering around in circles in the final days of their agonizing deaths. 

 

[micky 3,325]

Rubbing the skin from a Dead infected Rabbit  will not infect a healthy Rabbit .

[Gypsydog94 4,625]

And the only people who really care for the humble bunny now? Farmers who remember loads of rabbits on there land and now have very few and Ferret and lurcher owners that’s who. 

[Pirate 9000 676]

The rabbit is a important animal for alot of other wildlife by creating suitable abitat by its grazing grass and weeds to a low level,and a food supply for a wide range of birds and mammals. I hope the man that invented myxomatosis died a slow lingering death first class shit house.

[Greyman 29,619]

46 minutes ago, micky said:

Rubbing the skin from a Dead infected Rabbit  will not infect a healthy Rabbit .

For someone with so much experience of the humble rabbit that’s a bit of a wank statement, myxy is carried by a flea and if the dead rabbit still has an infected flea on it then it can spread on through touch

[micky 3,325]

2 minutes ago, Greyman said:

For someone with so much experience of the humble rabbit that’s a bit of a wank statement, myxy is carried by a flea and if the dead rabbit still has an infected flea on it then it can spread on through touch

Happy to be corrected  but IF there is  not a Flea on that Skin the Rabbit will not catch it ! touching the infected area  will do nothing , as with most Viruses  inhalation can spread the disease but that requires two live animals , so i have been told .

[shaaark 10,946]

Why are rabbits always described as humble?

[Greyman 29,619]

33 minutes ago, shaaark said:

Why are rabbits always described as humble?

Cause they don’t want no smoke with no one I guess

[Greyman 29,619]

50 minutes ago, timmytree said:

Why do people persist in saying it's a man made disease? It's a naturally occurring virus that came from Uruguay. Man spread it but it's not man made.

Whatever we think of rabbits they are not natives of the UK, they are an introduced pest just like grey squirrels, pheasants, mitten crabs and signal crays.

 

Myxomatosis constituted the major part of my personal research between 1952 and 1967. To put it in perspective, I will begin with a very brief outline of its history, which is covered in detail in Fenner and Fantini (1999). Myxomatosis was first recognized as a virus disease when it killed European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in Giuseppe Sanarelli's laboratory in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1896. In 1911, workers in the Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Rio de Janeiro observed the disease in their laboratory rabbits and correctly classified the causative agent as a large virus. Henrique de Beaurepaire Aragão, working at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, showed that it could be transmitted mechanically by insect bite. In 1942, he showed that the reservoir host in Brazil was the local wild rabbit, Sylvilagus brasiliensis, in which the virus produced a localized nodule in the skin (Figure 6.1B). Knowing that the European rabbit was a major pest animal in Australia, and impressed by the lethality of the disease in these rabbits (Figure 6.1A), in 1919 Aragão wrote to the Australian government suggesting that it should be used here for rabbit control, but the quarantine authorities would not permit its importation.

Nice one timmytree always love a good fact or two

[micky 3,325]

Mixy was always out there as were lots more diseases that affected Rabbits what the scientists done  was making it possible to spread 

[shaaark 10,946]

21 minutes ago, Greyman said:

Cause they don’t want no smoke with no one I guess

What about 'bigwig'? He liked to throw his weight about a bit