News just received from New Zealand indicates that a news release issued
at 3pm today New Zealand time by New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture
says that New Zealand will not follow Australia's lead in using
Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease as a Biological Control of wild European rabbits.
Over 800 submissions were received by New Zealand MAF from within New
Zealand and from around the world and over 50% of those submissions were
against the proposed import and use of deadly rabbit haemorrhagic disease
as a biological control agent.
RHD was renamed rabbit calicivirus disease (RCD) by Australian authorities to make the virus seem more innocuous. Farmers in New Zealand thought that RHD would provide a cheap means of rabbit control but scientists argued that no one could guarantee that RHD would not infect other species. Also, in Australia, some rabbit populations are already immune to the RHD virus having been exposed at an early age and having developed antibodies to the disease.
Further details will be available tomorrow.
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