Biological aspects of rabbit control by myxomatosis

Abstract

Over recent months and years, numerous reports and submissions have evaluated the suggestion that myxomatosis be re-introduced for rabbit control in New Zealand. Unfortunately, many of these papers make only a very limited use of the myxomatosis story in Britain and Australia. Some are based on no more than a handful of scientific papers, where the available scientific literature is many times larger and more comprehensive. Others assume that because the New Zealand situation is different from elsewhere (and it is), few if any predictions can be made on the likely effectiveness of myxomatosis. Still others tend to be selective in translating the rather complex overseas experience to New Zealand conditions. This paper presents a synthesis of salient biological information on the rabbit in its New Zealand environment, on the disease virus, and on the flea which would need to be introduced to transmit the virus in the rabbit population. From a reading of more than 50 scientific papers (plus various other published and unpublished articles and reports), and from communications with several scientists directly involved in rabbit research and animal health, the biological constraints and projections of using myxomatosis are re-examined.