RCD BAITS : A THREAT TO AUSTRALIA
The National Registration Authority has received an application to legalise RCD baits in Australia.

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Scientists don't understand RCD. Australian authorities once suggested the disease might kill 95% of Australian rabbits. Some wild rabbits in Australia are now immune to RCD.

New Zealand reports a new mutated strain of RCD that causes rabbit's ears to "rot down to their stumps" over time prior to death. (Mutated RCD appeared after the legalisation of RCD baits in NZ using RCD virus imported from Australia). The new mutated RCD defies the Australian authorities assurance of 48 hrs to death after painless(?) infection.

Will Australian animals eating RCD baits also suffer deformities? Recent reports from New Zealand say "Deformed rabbits have been appearing on South Island farms as a result of the illegal spread of the rabbit killing disease, RCD, on baits. The phenomenon has occurred nowhere else in the world - and scientists can't say why. Gary Clark of Invermay Animal Health Laboratory says the only thing they can say for sure is that RCD, or RHD as it is now called, is definitely to blame."

RCD Baits may lose potency under the UV effects of the Sun and actually immunise rabbits against RCD. This is evidenced in NZ where bait instructions ask that non-eaten baits be retrieved by the user after 48 hours (How can RCD infected oat grains be easily retrieved from the ground ?)

Deliberate spread of RCD grain or carrot baits will expose many different species of animals to RCD, not just animals which are in close contact with, prey on or scavenge on rabbits. Many animal species will eat the RCD grain or carrot baits as well as rabbits. Many caliciviruses already infect multiple species.

Further spread of RCD on edible baits may cause further decline in the numbers of Australian birds of prey. Recent Australian Government reports say "During 1996 an 1997, when there were less than 5 rabbits per 10 kilometres, no breeding of Wedge-tailed Eagles was observed in the Strzelecki area." The Strzelecki Ranges is a premier Australian breeding site for Eagles in the Eastern States of Australia. The rabbit is now an important component in the diets of 11 of Australia's 24 species of diurnal raptor.

Further spread of RCD by using baits, will only encourage predatory Australian animals to eat our native animals. In the Eastern states foxes, feral cats and dingoes, deprived of their rabbit diet, are killing marsupials. Studies near Wellington, NSW have shown that foxes are taking joey grey kangaroos from their mothers and populations of brush tail possums may not survive.

Non-rabbit species may be susceptible to RCD. In New Zealand, there are high levels of RCD antibody in cats, ferrets, hawks, and hedgehogs in the areas where RCD baits were spread suggesting reaction to RCD

Legalisation of RCD baits will increase the exposure of humans to RCD. According to "Emerging Infectious Diseases" Vol 4 - No 1 , Jan. 1998 "The calicivirus implicated in RHD[RCD] ....might be expected to infect humans. An anecdotal account mentions antibodies in a Mexican worker." This paper sites a higher incidence of illnesses in Australians exposed to RCD than non-exposed.

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PHONE OR WRITE TO THE NRA , CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (MS ALISON TURNER)
PHONE (02) 6272.5158 OR FAX (02) 6272.3195
AND ASK THE NRA TO SAY NO TO THE LEGALISATION OF RCD BAITS IN AUSTRALIA.
Authorised by Rabbit Information Service PH/Fax (08) 9354.2985 10/9/1998


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