• New calicivirus strain to be released in Australia to control rabbits.
    39 replies, posted
[quote]Rabbit owners are being urged to make sure their pet is vaccinated, as the South Australian Government prepares to release a new strain of the calicivirus. The virus was first released into Australia in 1996 as part of attempts to control feral populations. Agriculture Minister Leon Bignell said while it initially had a dramatic effect on numbers, rabbits had been bouncing back. "That had a dramatic effect on numbers but we've seen in recent years those numbers grow again," he said. "This latest strain that comes from Korea is aimed at ... knocking those numbers down again." Mr Bignell said rabbits were agriculture's most costly pest, causing $200 million in damage to the industry each year. Australian Veterinary Association (SA) president Anne Fowler said the calicivirus was highly contagious, could kill within 24 hours and was spread through flies.[/quote] [url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-15/new-strain-of-calicivirus-to-be-released-in-sa/8273334[/url] Good riddance.
Given our track record for doing this shit, why do I feel like this is gonna end badly :v:
Pre-emptive post: Rabbits are one of the worst species for the Australian ecosystem. Thanks to their excessively high breeding rate and the amount of food they consume, they've absolutely fucked so much. They keep killing tons of trees by ringbarking them, eat all the plant life protecting the topsoil which causes massive erosion and have driven many native species off the mainland or even to near extinction. This is a necessary measure, not just for economic reasons but for environmental ones too. Rabbits absolutely have to go.
A strain of [del]FOX[/del]BUNNYDIE, if you could say so.
Hmm I wonder if this will backfire somehow, like spreading to native rodents? Also why not just trap them or give incentives to hunt them and donate the meat? Rabbit is good eating.
Why not just build a wall to keep the rabbits out
[QUOTE=Badballer;51830177]Why not just build a wall to keep the rabbits out[/QUOTE] They tried [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit-proof_fence[/url]
[QUOTE=TacticalBacon;51825700]Pre-emptive post: Rabbits are one of the worst species for the Australian ecosystem. Thanks to their excessively high breeding rate and the amount of food they consume, they've absolutely fucked so much. They keep killing tons of trees by ringbarking them, eat all the plant life protecting the topsoil which causes massive erosion and have driven many native species off the mainland or even to near extinction. This is a necessary measure, not just for economic reasons but for environmental ones too. Rabbits absolutely have to go.[/QUOTE] Yep, Rabbits need to be controlled or eradicated in Australia - they're absolutely your worst invasive (followed probably by the Cane Toad)... However, given your guy's track record of introducing something to control an invasive species and it going off to become invasive, I have to wonder if this won't backfire magnificently in the future. Because the Rabbit population is so large and replenishes so fast, that gives a lot of opportunity for the virus to mutate - which could be a whole lot of nothing as far as we're concerned, or it could be terrible.
[QUOTE=GamerChick;51830175]Hmm I wonder if this will backfire somehow, like spreading to native rodents? Also why not just trap them or give incentives to hunt them and donate the meat? Rabbit is good eating.[/QUOTE] Something similar happened in the past and it [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War"]didn't work out too well.[/URL] I honestly would've figured that rabbit population wouldn't be a problem in Australia given the insane amount of ravenous animals already residing in the country.
[QUOTE=GamerChick;51830175]Hmm I wonder if this will backfire somehow, like spreading to native rodents? Also why not just trap them or give incentives to hunt them and donate the meat? Rabbit is good eating.[/QUOTE] Australia is HUGE and most of it is uninhabited, and given how fast rabbits breed, you'd never get them all with human effort methods - they'd recolonise areas they were extirpated in pretty quickly.
[QUOTE=GamerChick;51830175]Hmm I wonder if this will backfire somehow, like spreading to native rodents? Also why not just trap them or give incentives to hunt them and donate the meat? Rabbit is good eating.[/QUOTE] I think it's estimated we have about 200 million wild rabbits in Australia(not just SA) so I honestly don't see how you could possibly set up enough traps or hunt them enough to even make a difference.
[QUOTE=MuTAnT;51830199]I think it's estimated we have about 200 million wild rabbits in Australia(not just SA) so I honestly don't see how you could possibly set up enough traps or hunt them enough to even make a difference.[/QUOTE] Smart Swarm Drones might be used in the future to counter rabbits.
[QUOTE=Guriosity;51830288]Smart Swarm Drones might be used in the future to counter rabbits.[/QUOTE] That would be pretty funny. :evil:
That honestly does not sound like a good idea. Should just offer a culling season with air rifles or whatever is legal IMO.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51830315]That honestly does not sound like a good idea. Should just offer a culling season with air rifles or whatever is legal IMO.[/QUOTE] Like with the emus
[QUOTE=TacticalBacon;51825700]Pre-emptive post: Rabbits are one of the worst species for the Australian ecosystem. Thanks to their excessively high breeding rate and the amount of food they consume, they've absolutely fucked so much. They keep killing tons of trees by ringbarking them, eat all the plant life protecting the topsoil which causes massive erosion and have driven many native species off the mainland or even to near extinction. This is a necessary measure, not just for economic reasons but for environmental ones too. Rabbits absolutely have to go.[/QUOTE] While I generally hate animals being killed or removed by humans - invasive and non-native species like rabbits in Australia HAVE to go. They just do too much damage to other animals and plants for them to not be gotten rid of.
[QUOTE=GamerChick;51830310]That would be pretty funny. :evil:[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.networkworld.com/article/2842117/security0/air-force-envisioning-swarms-of-tiny-inexpensive-almost-disposable-drones.html[/url] A.I in drones can be used to help identify a target and a well designed drones or a swarm of tiny cyber buggers could be relentless. Bring the genocide to the rabbits. Using smart drones to eliminate invasive species would be an excellent way to test and perfect such a weapon before using it in actual warfare.
these fuckers are everywhere down in nsw, when i was a kid i lived across from sir joseph banks park and it was just a giant rabbit zoo. they are far and few between up here in qld but still prevalent in rural areas.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51830315]That honestly does not sound like a good idea. Should just offer a culling season with air rifles or whatever is legal IMO.[/QUOTE] Except air rifles are only allowed on a real, Category A license and even still you won't have permission to shoot them on a lot of land.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51830315]That honestly does not sound like a good idea. Should just offer a culling season with air rifles or whatever is legal IMO.[/QUOTE] We have a long history of successful biocontrol agents.
[QUOTE=UncleJimmema;51830315]That honestly does not sound like a good idea. Should just offer a culling season with air rifles or whatever is legal IMO.[/QUOTE] Except there are too many rabbits, even if every single person in Australia went out with rifles it wouldn't make enough of a difference.
[QUOTE=GamerChick;51830175] Also why not just trap them or give incentives to hunt them and donate the meat? Rabbit is good eating.[/QUOTE] Because that won't really do much. Rabbits are too good at hiding and breed way too well for us to realistically hunt them out of an entire continent.
As already mentioned, this sounds like it could backfire terribly. What if it the strain mutates and spreads to another species, or spreads in another country. Hopefully this wont effect foxes too much either, wouldn't they just move on to eating more native wildlife if rabbits become more unavailable in time...
[QUOTE=Re1nhardt;51830418]As already mentioned, this sounds like it could backfire terribly. What if it the strain mutates and spreads to another species, or spreads in another country. Hopefully this wont effect foxes too much either, wouldn't they just move on to eating more native wildlife if rabbits become more unavailable in time...[/QUOTE] It's been done here many times over, the people working on it are actually competent. This time round shall be no different. Also no, less rabbits means less food, more foxes starve, which is good. The affect on native fauna is negligible from foxes killing them, since they would otherwise be killed at a radically quicker pace due to rabbits.
Should just loosen the gun laws again so people can hunt the shit out of them with air rifles but I guess this works too.
Then it just makes them bigger, stronger, a whole army of mutant bunnies!
just an fyi but it is a [B]New[/B] calicivirus strain, we've used this virus before to great effect with (as far as I know) no negative side effects to the ecosystem. Also we do have rabbit hunting but there's so many of the buggers the hunters can't keep up.
Shit gimme a gun and let me hunt for rabbits ill do that shit for free
[QUOTE=SirJon;51831168]Shit gimme a gun and let me hunt for rabbits ill do that shit for free[/QUOTE] I still say bring on the drones
I used to go rabbit hunting with dogs as a teenager. Rabbits are little bastards who destroy everything, they even chew through wire fences. They breed like fucking nothing else too, there's always more rabbits. Australia's rabbit problem is actually impossible to solve without measure like this, there are just too many for physical manpower to take care of.
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