THE NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has issued a new biosecurity bulletin for rabbit owners.
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The DPI and Local Land Services are urging pet owners to protect their rabbits in time for the national release of the rabbit biocontrol, RHDV1 K5, at the end of this month.
It has sent bunny-lovers into a frenzy, particularly Tasmania lady Maree Hanning who is behind a push for the government to do more to protect pet rabbits.
The RHDV1 K5 is the Korean strain of a naturally-occurring rabbit virus first released here in 1996 to manage the impact of pest rabbits on the Australian environment and agriculture.
The virus targets wild rabbits which cost more than $200 million in lost agricultural production annually and wreak havoc on the environment, with a direct impact on 304 threatened native plant and animal species, according to DPI invasive species manager, Quentin Hart.
“To help prevent domestic rabbits from becoming infected with RHDV1 K5 pet owners should consult their veterinarian and follow vaccination recommendations,” he said.
In addition to vaccination, DPI advises rabbit owners to prevent direct and indirect contact between domestic and wild rabbits, to protect rabbits from insects to reduce risks of RHDV and myxomatosis, which includes insect-proof hutches and keeping rabbits indoors, and to wash their hands with warm soapy water between handling rabbits
These recommendations are in accordance with advice from the Australian Veterinary Association.
Maree is fighting the battle and warning other rabbit owners via a Facebook page, which has supporters all over Australia.
“RHDV2 has no official release and the government don’t know how it got here,” Maree said.
“The RHDV-K5 will be released in March and we (a group on Facebook of rabbit lovers who have 1800 members) are trying to stop that.
We have been sending out letters to the relevant parties that can make a difference.”
Maree said the group has evidence that the vaccines will not be strong enough to deal with the K5 virus.
“The pilot study that was undertaken shows that the vaccine wouldn’t work, as well as the early evidence of an outbreak that showed vaccinated rabbits were still dying,” she said.
“The information that we got back from the evaluation from the pilot copy that we purchased from the government, we sent to a vaccine evaluation company in the UK. We are convinced that the vaccine will not work efficiently.
All we want is a delay of release until we are given access to a vaccine that will work.”
Landholders, working with DPI and Local Land Services, plan to release RHDV1 K5 in more than 200 community-led sites in NSW, from late February until early March, as part of the national release.
National release of RHDV1 K5 has been delivered through the Invasive Animals CRC, with major financial and in kind resources provided by the Australian and NSW governments, CSIRO, Meat and Livestock Australia, Australian Wool Innovation and Foundation for Rabbit Free Australia.