Myxi vacs - is every 6 months necessary?

aussiebun said:

Yes, it's VERY frustrating. It makes no sense for them to allow us to vaccinate against 1 but not the other. Totally ridiculous.

The main reason they do it I think is because the Calicivirus was released by accident, earlier than intended, not intentionally like the Myxi was.

Poor aussie bunnies

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The release was no accident. It was a deliberate act by a small group of South Australian farmers who managed to illicitly obtain infected rabbits from a secure Government scientific test area. They actually boasted about how clever they had been. Needless to say, being farmers, they were never prosecuted.

Putting their self-interest ahead of all prevented testing to determine if Calicivirus would be dangerous to native fauna. It is interesting though that it has been nowhere as effective as they had hoped.

beki said:

thanks for your input its something i have been thinking about lately. of course i wouldn't want to risk my bunnies, but we live in a built up area, nearest countryside is about 1 and a half miles away, where there are wild rabbits as i have seen them play by the road.

vaccination wise, reggie is due for a booster in june and ruby in may. would it matter if ruby got hers done later in june or reggie earlier in may so i can take them togehter?

i never realised it was illegal in australia!

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Yes i have the same problem. one of my buns is now overdue but the other will be a month early if i take them now (only 5 months since last one). Can this early vacc harm a bun?
I dont mind taking them twice but it seems unfair as they hate the vets and its quite a long trip

????

tigerangel said:

So back in the 50's and within the space of 2 years, 1 in 6 rabbits survived in Australia and today 50% of Australian rabbits survive the diease, which is a lot more than we can say for the UK's wild/domestic rabbits :?

I can in some ways understand them not wanting to vaccinate rabbits in Australia because wild rabbits will become even more immune, and the last thing we want is for them to unleash a new virus to control their wild population and have it seep through the rest fo the world again. But, of course with this, I do feel very sorry for rabbit owners in Australia who aren't able to vaccinate their pets

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See the argument against this is that if the vaccine against Myxomatosis (Which is Shope's Fibroma virus) was really to pass on immunity to wild rabbits, then people in the UK, Europe etc who have their pets vaccinated would have noticed less Myxi in wild rabbits and therefore less need to vaccinate pet rabbits against it. There are many pet rabbits who are dumped or escape, and some of them must be vaccinated. However there is no such decline in Myxi cases here, showing that there's not a massive chance of it happening. The Australian government has to keep introducing new strains of Myxi into the wild anyway because of natural immunity rabbits build up.

Back on topic, my vet advises outdoor rabbits to be done every six months and indoor rabbits who never go outside once a year.

lauraandmike said:

Yes i have the same problem. one of my buns is now overdue but the other will be a month early if i take them now (only 5 months since last one). Can this early vacc harm a bun?
I dont mind taking them twice but it seems unfair as they hate the vets and its quite a long trip

????

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I'm not sure personally but maybe you could call your vets, they should be able to advise you.