Nasty/evil farmer

I have found out that a farmer near us is putting the myxi virus out to kill rabbits to save his stocks.
I have got the phone number for DEFRA, Is there some one else that I should inform.
I am really worried!
Is it airborn, could it come thru my windows?
I am phoning DEFRA in the morning when I get more info off my neighbour who told me.

:?

How is he putting it out? The alternative is shooting them so its a bit of a rock and a hard place

How's he doing that? :|

ETA: I honestly don't think he could actively be releasing the myxoma virus anywhere unless he had vials of the virus that he was directly injecting into the wild rabbits or releasing fleas infected with it.

Both of those are highly unlikely. I think your neighbour either has their wires crossed or is telling porkie pies. The chances are there is myxomatosis already in the area.

Farmers might get rid of rabbits by ferreting, gassing or, as Webble said, shooting. To get hold of the myxoma virus and catching the rabbits to infect the local population is very unlikely.

I didn't think the myxi virus had to be "introduced" any more because it's already in the environment and will occur spontaneously every 20 years or so. Or are you saying that the farmer has got hold of a diseased rabbit and has introduced that? Do you have proof or - sorry to say this - is there a bit of neighbourhood hysteria going on? Because you don't seem very knowlegeable about myxomatosis.

And in defence of farmers, the vast majority care for their animals and few are nasty or evil. You'll always hear about the worst of them but as in most walks of life, the majority of any slice of the population are normal, friendly, thoughtful people.

I agree with the others I'm afraid...myxi is endemic in the UK so there would be no point in a farmer 'introducing' it, because it's already there! I suspect that someone has started a rumour and it's spread as fact. Myxi is around where all of us live, the best protection is to make sure your bunnies are vaccinated against it and have their booster vaccinations on time. It is carried by insects such as gnats, mosquitos and fleas so it is very easy for it to transmit via windows etc - one of the very reasons that it is endemic in the first place!

Hmm sounds a bit iffy! As others have said it is unlikely that the farmer is introducing it unless as someone else said he has got hold of an infected rabbit and has introduced it to the wild population. Myxo is so wide spread and is everywhere. It is spread via indirect contact such as bitting insects and contact bunny to bunny. You can not spread myxo as humans are not suitable vectors for the virus. Just ensure you vaccinate then you have done all you can.

RubyTed said:

How's he doing that? :|

ETA: I honestly don't think he could actively be releasing the myxoma virus anywhere unless he had vials of the virus that he was directly injecting into the wild rabbits or releasing fleas infected with it.

Both of those are highly unlikely. I think your neighbour either has their wires crossed or is telling porkie pies. The chances are there is myxomatosis already in the area.

Farmers might get rid of rabbits by ferreting, gassing or, as Webble said, shooting. To get hold of the myxoma virus and catching the rabbits to infect the local population is very unlikely.

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:thumb:

Honestly, if you ring DEFRA and say 'a nearby farmer is releasing myxo' you'll be laughed off the phone. Myxo isn't a notifiable disease anyway, I'm not sure DEFRA would/could do anything. It's a natural disease and it happens commonly in wild populations. Vaccinate and keep flies away from your rabbits, as well as regular bum checks for flystrike and that's all you can do.

I beg to differ from what other people have said. Myxi is a man made virus created in Australia and deliberately released as a form of pest control for wild rabbits who where not native to the country and had no natural predators therefore bred out of control. As such I don't see why it couldn't be released here to bring about an endemic.
Having said that it's not something I've heard of happening in the UK. The thing is we see rabbits as being beautiful and deserving of life and protection but farmers will see them as pests who need exterminating. Other methods of reducing the rabbit population are shooting, ferreting and gassing the warrens. I'm pretty sure DEFRA won't care.
Myxi is carried via direct contact of bodily fluids or by biting insects.

blue_vix said:

Myxi is a man made virus created in Australia and deliberately released as a form of pest control for wild rabbits who where not native to the country and had no natural predators therefore bred out of control. As such I don't see why it couldn't be released here to bring about an endemic.

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I think the point we are all making is it already exists in the environment - is endemic - in the UK and therefore the virus being "released" doesn't make sense. The epidemic already happened. It is, obviously, possible that an individual is reintroducing it to a specific area deliberately but how are you suggesting that could be achieved? I don't think vials of the live virus are available on Ebay. But, if a rabbit with myxomatosis was deliberately moved from an area with an outbreak to another warren, yes, that would probably work.

OP, you probably need to question your neighbour again and then analyse whether she seems to be a reliable informant with facts from a good source... or whether she's just passing on alarmist gossip. For instance, what "stocks" is the farmer trying to save?

And just as a small gesture towards a pedants' corner entry, I thought myxomatosis was a virus that existed in nature but did not particularly affect the local rabbit population where it was found - in south America. It was only when it was introduced into European rabbit populations which had no natural immunity - Australia, Europe - that it had it's devastating consequences. Therefore it is not a man-made virus created in Australia but was deliberately introduced there and also into France and the UK.

Australia has the European rabbit, btw, because it was introduced by European immigrants who bought rabbits with them as a food source. The food source escaped...

ETA:
This is interesting ...

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2005/Features/WTX024879.htm

It seems to indicate that as of 1954, deliberate transmission is a criminal act.

How was myxomatosis spread within the UK? The rabbit flea was crucial but some farmers spread the disease deliberately. The Pests Act of 1954 criminalised intentional transmission, but few prosecutions ensued. Does lack of formal sanctioning reflect the difficulty of detecting offences or official sympathy with offenders?

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I am going to see my neighbour and see what he says. See if he has proof (he has heard it from the people who he walks with). He said he mentioned it to a vet when he was at a surgery, and it turns out that the vet was the farmers girlfriend!
That's why I get my buns vaccinated twice a year with us living near the countryside.
But now with that new once a year vac's I'm buggered.

Lil & Ron's Mum said:

I am going to see my neighbour and see what he says. See if he has proof (he has heard it from the people who he walks with). He said he mentioned it to a vet when he was at a surgery, and it turns out that the vet was the farmers girlfriend!
That's why I get my buns vaccinated twice a year with us living near the countryside.
But now with that new once a year vac's I'm buggered.

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No, you're not - they are even better protected than they ever were. The vaccine is made with real myxi now not a virus similar to myxi so there's much less chance of them actually catching myxi.

I agree with the others re the deliberate spreading of myxi, I don't think he'd have the means to do it from buying the virus etc. The information sounds a bit second and third hand. I bet somebody has suggested that he's doing it deliberately, Chinese whispers has turned it into gospel. Round here the best way of deliberately speading it would be to seek out and collect infected rabbits and take them to the land in question, I doubt he'd need to go to the bother of that though to be honest.

Actually it's something farmers could and would easily do. If one farmer has a rabbit population with myxi and another farmer has a rabbit problem they could quite easily catch one or more infected rabbits and release them on the other farmers land.

Yes they could - but the point is that myxi doesn't define itself by farmer's boundaries, it is rife in the rabbit population throughout the uk so it doesn't need deliberately introducing as it will be there in the natural population anyway. They could do it, but it probably wouldn't achieve anything that wouldn't happen anyway.

Well it would achieve a local outbreak and reduce the rabbit numbers in that area.

Most people carry MRSA but we still avoid coming in to contact with it. The flu virus is already in the environment but we still know getting in close contact with someone who has it is going to increasing our chances of getting it. I really don't see how it already being in the environment in an inactive form would make introducing it in its active form pointless.. it would increase the chances of it becoming active in the population.

Given that it's spread by biting insects, I seriously doubt that moving infected rabbits around (which seems a lot of hard work) would make things a great deal worse.

Its also spread by rabbit to rabbit contact, and insects are most likely to bite first in the local area, spread is geographically concentric with some bias towards wind direction and ecological conditions. Plus there are different strains and rabbits in a particular area are less likely to have genetic immunity to an imported strain.

blue_vix said:

Its also spread by rabbit to rabbit contact, and insects are most likely to bite first in the local area, spread is geographically concentric with some bias towards wind direction and ecological conditions. Plus there are different strains and rabbits in a particular area are less likely to have genetic immunity to an imported strain.

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No it's not.

RubyTed said:

No it's not.

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then why does it say Myxi is usually spread by biting insects (fleas, mosquitoes) carrying the Myxoma virus. However, direct rabbit-to-rabbit spread can occur. Previously, this was mainly seen in a French respiratory strain of the disease, but reports from the Autumn 2000 UK outbreak suggest that rabbit-to-rabbit transmission may now occur the UK. on the forum information here ? http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/understanding_myxo_feb06.htm
and also Myxomatosis is spread by direct contact with an affected animal or by being bitten by fleas or mosquitoes that have fed on an infected rabbit. is stated here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis and the rspca states Myxomatosis is caused by the myxoma virus, a poxvirus spread between rabbits by close contact and biting insects such as fleas and mosquitoes here http://kb.rspca.org.au/What-is-myxomatosis-and-how-do-I-protect-my-rabbit-from-it_73.html
How was myxomatosis spread within the UK? The rabbit flea was crucial but some farmers spread the disease deliberately. The Pests Act of 1954 criminalised intentional transmission, but few prosecutions ensued. Does lack of formal sanctioning reflect the difficulty of detecting offences or official sympathy with offenders? is stated here http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2005/Features/WTX024879.htm

The virus is spread by contact of bodily fluids which is facilitated by biting insects but also by rabbit to rabbit contact.

SarahP said:

Given that it's spread by biting insects, I seriously doubt that moving infected rabbits around (which seems a lot of hard work) would make things a great deal worse.

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Insects have a very short range so moving an infected rabbit into an area without an outbreak would drastically increase the chances of infection.