A FATAL RABBIT DISEASE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2403, 3 December 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FATAL RABBIT DISEASE.

IT ATTACKS NO OTHER ANIMALHUT SLUMS LIKULV TO EXTERMINATE THE RABBIT.

(South Australian Chronicle.) A question of very great importance not only to this colony hnt to the whole of Australia is how to deal with the rabbit pest. The Government of the various colonics have expended many thousands of pounds upon rabbit parties and other methods of extinguishing the nuisance, but with oidy partial success, and the sum of £'2n,ooo has been offered for any plan of discovery by which the rabbit can be exterminated. Rome years ago the system was tried of inoculating the animal with a certain disease, but this expedient failed, because it was not conveyed to the progeny farther than the second or third generation, and its effects therefore rapidly died out. There appears now, however, to he a possibility of success in this direction, as Professor Watson, of the Adelaide University, has been conducting experiments of a practical and very interesting character with the view of abating, if not of ultimately getting rid of, the rabbit pest, "i he professor has not been instigated m bis experiments by offers of any reward, as bis researches in this direction were commenced about a year ago, when bis attention was drawn to a disease amongst rabbits which existed in Germany and France. In those countries and in England “ bunny” is sought after as an acceptable article of food, and in one year the exports from Belgium to London totalled up a value of 25,000 francs. In Oslond and sumo other places rabbits are reared and kept in places where their movements are confined, and they are fed upon artificial food—the sequence being that a very destructive disease has attacked them. When this was first discovered, about two years ago the services of the famous analyst and physician, Pasteur, were brought into request, and lie gave the subject bis best attention. He discovered that the disease was tuberculosis, and that no other animal than the rabbit would be affected by it. The farmers in the north of France were in a great state of anxiety for their herds and flocks, but Pasteur’s experiments were convincing, and it has since been found that sheep and cattle wore quite safe, although the rabbits may be dying in thousands round them. Professor Watson determined on trying the experiment of importing some of these diseased rabbits from Germany to wateh for himself the result of the di-ease, and to ascertain whether it could be made use of hero in a practical fashion. Four diseased rabbits were brought out in a German vessel, which arrived in April last, and as they were fatally afflicted with tho disease the last of of tho quartette died within a fortnight after they were landed, but not before they had communicated the disease to some living rabbits that were placed in the same cage with them. From that time to the present the professor has been experimenting until ho has come to the conclusion that the disease can actually be convoyed by contact from a few rabbits to a very great number, and that all other animals are quite safe from its attacks. With the aid of Mr Morceau, tho assistant in the dissecting theatre, Professor Watson has had at least 150 rabbits under his observation, and the disease has been kept alive from the time when tho first were imported to the present day. We saw three that wore thus afflicted last week occupying the pen in which the originals were imported. One of these, a white buck, is badly diseased, bis eyes being nearly closed, and bis whole head covered with the tubercles, and we were informed that he has only about a fortnight to live. The others are in tho earlier stages of the disease. Experiments have been tried by the professor with cats, dogs, sheep and other animals, but the disease cannot be transmitted to them, and on this point he is confident. A rabbit so diseased can actually be eaten with impunity, though as an article of diet he would hardly be worth the cooking, as the frame becomes attenuated, the little flesh that is left on the bones hardens and becomes sapless, and the animal is reduced almost to a skeleton at the time of his death. To keep them alive for any length of time required constant attention and a plentiful supply of water and green stuff (which rabbits on a station would not get during tho summer), so that the disease would be very rapid in its results. Another very important feature of the disease is that either sex so afflicted loses all procreating power, and tho species must therefore die out when tho disease has been fairly disseminated amongst them One rabbit would suffice to communicate it to a whole warren, as in plain terms tho disease is a kind of itch created by small insects of the lice tribe, and when these, have lodged upon the head the animal scratches with its forepaws, and then by licking its paws conveys the insect into his body. From that time he is doomed, and so are all his companions who inhabit the same locality, as the insect on being hmshed off one of the tribe attaches itself toanotherand multiplies very rapidly. A comparatively large cost has already been incurred in these experiments, and it is to be hoped that the Government will make a grant or lend the professor aid in prosecuting his experiments on a larger scale, so that by the time the summer arrives a batch of diseased rabbits may be ready to he sent ito various parts of the colony where the practical results of the professor’s researches may be fairly tested.