The National Registration Authority is considering an application
to legalise Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease on edible baits to kill wild
rabbits in Australia.
International scientists fear spreading RHD food baits will increase the possibility of ill-health in humans and Australian native animals exposed to RHD baits.
Animal welfarists are dismayed the manufacture process to make RHD virus available in vials to mix with carrot baits will probably involve growing the virus in thousands of live laboratory rabbits over many years.
Scientists have been unable to grow RHD in test tubes outside of live rabbits.
"Many laboratory rabbits may be deliberately infected with RHD and used as live incubators to grow RHD virus. They will be killed so the RHD virus can be extracted from their infected livers to make the RHD biocide. Apparently the same procedure is used to grow RHD virus for the RHD vaccine," said Marguerite Wegner of Rabbit Information Service.
"The laboratory rabbits are the same breeds of rabbits we know and love as pets," she said.
"The deliberate infection and death of possibly thousands of pet rabbits housed in laboratories every year to grow such a deadly disease as RHD to spread to kill wild rabbits reveals the cruel nature of those involved in the RCD saga," she said.
"RHD will not wipe out the Australian wild rabbit population and in New Zealand rabbit numbers
have bounced back despite the existence of RHD. New Zealand researchers have
observed some wild rabbits fed with RHD baits in New Zealand taking weeks to die
while their ears rot away at the same time. This effect has been seen nowhere else
in the world except New Zealand and NZ is the only country to deliberately
spread RHD on food baits."
"The whole RCD saga is a cruel, dangerous and inhumane approach to wild animal control," said Ms Wegner.
Dr Michael Studdert of Melbourne University School of Veterinary Science was employed by the NRA to review scientific aspects of the RCD bait application.
The NRA attempted to keep Dr Studdert's identity a secret and he was referred to as the "secret reviewer" by those who faced the long and arduous task of revealing his identity through an appeal to the Australian Administrative Tribunal.
"The Government expected us to accept the word of a reviewer whose name and credentials were to remain a secret to everyone and this was unacceptable," said Ms Wegner.
The Environmental Defenders Office in Perth, Western Australia helped win the AAT appeal revealing the External reviewer’s identity.
The AAT report said "The Tribunal is of the opinion that the public interest would be served by it knowing the credentials of experts called upon to review, independently, a request to register a product, which by its very nature, may have an unintended environmental impact."
"The undergraduate, post-graduate and professional affiliations of expert scientists, in the Tribunal's opinion, go some of the way only to establishing the person's specialist qualifications," the AAT report said.
"Only by identifying the particular person is it possible to gather that objective information on which to found a judgement as to the expert's independence, qualifications, experience and suitability for the task," said the AAT report.
"Clearly the community of scholarly scientists engaged in research must be indifferent and objective in their approach and method and must be prepared to defend publicly their conclusions should they be challenged. Absent the identity of the scientist then that process may not be open," said the AAT report.
"There is no evidence before the Tribunal as to whether the contract negotiated between the External reviewer and the respondent [the NRA] contained any reference to treating as confidential the External reviewer's identity," said the AAT report.
"The External Reviewer states that he/she would be reluctant to give further advice if there was inappropriate contact by members of the public as a result of his/her identity being disclosed to the applicant," said the AAT report.
"The respondent [the NRA] holds a position of public significance and is charged with the onerous task in deciding, on behalf of citizens whether to register agricultural and veterinary chemicals. It is therefore in the public interest that its processes and deliberations leading to its decisions are transparent, subject only to statutory exclusion of access to documents," said the AAT report.
The decision of the AAT report was to release most of the documents the NRA had withheld partly due to disclosure of the reviewers name and other reasons.
It should be noted Dr Studdert is not a human health expert and the NRA has put the scrutiny of part of the RCD bait application in the hands of one man rather than a panel of international and unbiased health professionals (including human health professionals).
Dr Michael Studdert was quoted in The Australian Veterinary Journal (August 1994) as saying "The gene(s) responsible for the massive destruction of hepatocytes and for triggering DIC should be identified because these gene(s) could be spliced into the genome of Myxomatosis virus to enhance its effectiveness in the control of rabbits. It will also be important to define the effects of both myxomatosis virus and RHDV when both are present. Since their pathogens are quite distinct and independent it may be expected that they will act synergistically. A two-virus means of biological control should be more effective than a single virus not least because of reduced opportunities for virus-resistant rabbits to emerge."
The July 1998 NRA review strategy said "it has been difficult to come up with a reviewer who has not already "gone public" on RCD and this raises questions of possible 'perceived conflict of interest' of any reviewer."
Documents accessed under the Freedom of Information Act say the National Registration Board has expressed the view "Further [public] consultation is considered unlikely to be meaningful. The NRA board has expressed the view they do not wish for another round of public consultation."
RHD virus causes a horrible haemorrhagic death to wild rabbits in Australia and many species of Australian animals will be directly exposed to RHD in unknown quantities for the first time.
Environmentalists are concerned that disposal of effluent and disgarded equipment and baits contaminated with RHD due to manufacture and bait mixing may seep into waterways and food supplies of both animals and humans.
Some occupational health and safety professionals are concerned that those mixing the baits with virus are told to cover themselves from head to toe with safety clothing and to wear breathing masks to avoid coming into contact with "foreign protein."
No debate over the health of those involved in manufacturing and spreading the RHD baits has occurred and overseas health experts concerned about RHD as an emerging deadly disease of mammals fear increased contact between RHD and humans due to the RHD food baits may increase health risks.
"What about the health of those humans involved with infecting the laboratory rabbits and how will the rabbits be infected to grow the virus? Will there be sheds full of laboratory rabbits infected by RHD using aerosol sprays or are they to be injected with the deadly disease? Who is monitoring the disposal of effluent, sharps and other equipment" said one consultant.
The National Registration Authority has denied a public consultation process about the RCD baits.
The NRA are treating the RCD baits as a "change of label" application of the RHD injectible
product.
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