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Old 31-10-2012, 06:51 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
[email protected] nmm1@cam.ac.uk is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Oct 2008
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Default Is keeping rabbits for the table OT here?

In article ,
Janet wrote:
In article , kay.b025076
says...

I read somewhere a couple of days ago that myxie had been discovered
somewhere but cannot remember where. People were being advised to
vaccinate pet rabbits. I didn't know that there was a vaccine.


I thought it hadn't actually gone away?


It didn't, it's still in circulation. Either the virus mutated or
wild rabbits in some areas developed a degree of natural resistance to
it.....so a bit like some human infections, outbreaks are sporadic as
population resistance fluctuates.


Yes. It is now endemic in the UK rabbit population and, over
timescales of decades, is in balance with it. There is essentially
no chance that it will either be reduced to a rare disease or make
rabbits rare again. Within a century or two, we can expect to see
it become less of an obvious disease in wild rabbits, as more and
more develop a level of immunity.

If we restored our raptor populations and reintroduced lynx, it
would be reduced considerably, but I doubt that even that would
eliminate it.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.