The first rabbit calicivirus outbreak in the Manawatu- Wanganui Regional Council's territory looks like being a fizzer.

Resource management committee chairman Chris Lester yesterday confirmed the release of the virus on a Echolands property south of Taumarunui had only resulted in the death of a few rabbits that had direct contact with the solution sprayed near burows. The virus was not moving through rabbit-to-rabbit contact.

Cr Lester said farmers in the district had agreed to wait for a January release, when juveniles were past the age when they could develop an immunity, and spread would be most rapid. The council was ready to offer advice.

"I'm personally disappointed that somebody who is not a bona fide farmer - I believe he grows nuts - has chosen to jump the gun in this maner. If it was to be released, we wanted to achieve the maximum impact."

Cr Lester said there were pockets of high rabbit infestation in the Ruapehu district in areas such as Owhango, Torkirima and Ongarue. The council was taking a correct line in offering technical advice. Legislation meant it could not be directly involved in co-ordinating the release.

"I believe the investigation of new or unwanted diseases is a job for the Ministry of Agriculture."


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Dominion 11/11/97

Farmer blames use of rabbit virus on 'nitwit politicians'

By Alison Tocker

The farmer who started spreading the rabbit calicivirus disease in Hawk's Bay about a week ago said yesterdy that he had been driven to it by "nitwit politicians down in Wellington". Jack Nicholas of Puketiri sand he was fed up and frustrated with the Governments's lack of action on the virus, and officials apparent inability to sort out legal issues.

"I had hoped, like every other farmer, there would have been a controlled release of the virus throughout the length of the country. "The Government just didn't have the bottle to do it. They can turn around and blame the regional councils, but the politicians are sidestepping the issue.

"The Otago farmers were so frustrated they released it themselves, and now I've done the same thing." It was after Hawk's Bay Regional Council had spent $30,000 on conventional rabbit contrl work on his property last summer, and the rabbits remained a problem, that Mr Nicholas decided to take matters into his own hands. But he said he was not angry at the regional council for holding back on helping farmers spread the virus.

North Island regional councils have been reluctant to get actively involved, as they could be prosecuted under the Pesticides Act or Resource Management Act. Mr Nicholas, whose property is 56 kilometres northwest of Napier, said he got the virus from the Rural Futures Trust in Otago, by courier- "frozen in a flask and well wrapped".

He gave some of the virus to about 10 other farmers in Hawke's Bay, and would try to get more to distribute to another 20 in the Ruahine Ranges area. The rabbits were starting to die on his property he said. However, many were going off in to heavy fern country to die, so he was not collecting many bodies.

Asked why he had not held off till February - regarded as a better time to spread the virus to prevent young rabbits getting immunity - Mr Nicholas said all the inforamtion he had from the South Island was that it was killing young rabbits. And he had seen dead baby rabbits on his farm since spreading the virus.

He planned to keep spreading the virus on his 1000-hectare (2500 acre) sheep and cattle farm for at least another month. Federated Farmer's Hawke's Bay president Robert Anderson met regional council works manager Mike Healy last night to discuss the situation. After the meeting, Mr Anderson said he agreed with the council's position that farmers should hold off at least till mid December before spreading the virus.

This would avoid giving rabbits younger than eight weeks lifelong immunity and the council would be able to give farmers information on how best to spread the virus. The council would also be better able to monitor the spread effects of the virus, he said.


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Date: Tuesday, 11 November 1997 09:12

Suggestion of RCD Immunity by Sarona Iosefa

Large-scale RCD baiting of rabbits may make them immune to the virus.

The chief executive officer of the Otago Regional Council, Graeme Martin, said yesterday that council research indicated that putting out RCD-baited carrots on a large scale resulted in some bait being laid out at half-strength, or being left untouched long enough for untra-viole light to affect the virus.

"Where the carrots do not have sufficient virus to kill them (rabbits), there is the possibility of leaving them immune for the rest of their lives".

"It is hypothetical, but we want to be conscious of an urgent need for research to see how great a risk this is", Mr Martin said.

Speaking at a meeting in Christchurch of the Rural Futures Trust and rural regional councils, he said there was an urgent need for more research in this area.

A member of the trust, Alastair Ensor, said there was no evidence to prove Mr Martin's theory of rabbit immunity, but farmers had taken his advice seriously.

Farmers told the meeting that RCD had achieve a 90 per cent kill rate, and showed every likelihood of improving.

A spokeswoman for the Rural Futures Trust, Claire Mulcock, said: "Kills of over 90 per cent, and still rising as the virus continues to work, are common".

The trust had been contracted by the Ministry of Agriculture to gather farmer information on RCD, and to give them packages on the best management practices for RCD.

Mr Martin said the meeting had been positive with the main concern of all parties being the continued monitoring of RCD, research into its effects, and a fast flow of information back to farmers. He said he was amazed at farmers' reports that RCD was spreading naturally at a rate of more than 2km a week in some areas.

The legal status of regional councils in spreading RCD was still to be addressed, but this was a matter best left to the Government, Mr Martin said.