Rabbitary Wipe Out

NZ:Julia · Aug 31, 2024

This is really interesting @Bekah-n-Tennessee, I am sorry you have also had this experience. I have been thinking about bio-security since this happened. I can now see there are lots of things I can do differently. The trouble is I have no idea how the virus got in, netting sounds like a good way to stop flys and mosquitos. I don't invite anyone onto my land, it is just myself and Mr NZ.
I think I tramped it around on my shoes and hands once it was established. I didn't know what was happening or how my actions were contributing to the spread.
It sounds like you have established a vaccine protocol that works well. I wonder if there are other general precautions that seem to be helpful as general good practice and also when TSHTF.

Preitler · Aug 31, 2024

I had a Myxo outbreak in my first years with rabbits, didn't know what I was dealing with and it started when I was away for 3 weeks.
Once I realised what was going on I tried to seperate the remaining ones, one in every room, but only one didn't catch it and survived from the initial 15.

I'm sure it was brought in by wild rabbits, or, imo less likely, contanimated forage, had seen a sick one some miles away when playing paintball weeks before that. Young ones are small enough to get through fences with ease and they are attracted by domestic rabbits, one wild buckling did knock up one of my does, 3 times his size.

I kept the one doe in my apartment over winter, 8 months, washed the wooden hutches and removed the roofs, and started again next spring.
Wild rabbit population had collapsed from a lot to practically nothing, it took appr. 5 years to recover, guess it's only a matter of time when density gets high enough for an outbrake to propagete again.

Since then I moved to a small rural valley with lots of predators but no wild rabbit population, feels way safer.

Bekah-n-Tennessee · Aug 31, 2024

NZ:Julia said:
This is really interesting @Bekah-n-Tennessee, I am sorry you have also had this experience. I have been thinking about bio-security since this happened. I can now see there are lots of things I can do differently. The trouble is I have no idea how the virus got in, netting sounds like a good way to stop flys and mosquitos. I don't invite anyone onto my land, it is just myself and Mr NZ.
I think I tramped it around on my shoes and hands once it was established. I didn't know what was happening or how my actions were contributing to the spread.
It sounds like you have established a vaccine protocol that works well. I wonder if there are other general precautions that seem to be helpful as general good practice and also when TSHTF.

Think this reply was meant for @RFSatins...

MsTemeraire · Aug 31, 2024

Preitler said:
I'm sure it was brought in by wild rabbits, or, imo less likely, contanimated forage, had seen a sick one some miles away when playing paintball weeks before that. Young ones are small enough to get through fences with ease and they are attracted by domestic rabbits, one wild buckling did knock up one of my does, 3 times his size.

Yes, it would have been. Wild rabbits in Europe and the UK form a reservoir of infection for Myxo, and now RHD.
Myxo, luckily, is a lot less contagious than RHD. It's mainly spread by biting insects such as mosquitoes and fleas, and wild rabbits usually have plenty of fleas. Otherwise, it's spread by very close contact, i.e. bodily fluids.

RHD is also spread via biting insects but also flies, and a tiny speck of infected material such as fly faeces is enough to infect a rabbit. Insects can be blown a long way by the wind, and it's interesting that the first counties in the UK to have serious outbreaks of RHD2 were Devon and Kent, both areas that regularly have weather patterns coming across from France (where RHD2 originated).

Then there's the problem of carrion-eating animals and birds who may eat an infected carcass, then defecate - the faeces will be infectious. A crow or seagull might fly over your garden after eating a dead wild rabbit and poop on your lawn, for example. Other wildlife such as rats, mice, hedgehogs could also walk the virus onto your property. Or you might walk your dog on infected land, or your cat might go hunting wild rabbits and bring back a flea. Maybe one of your neighbours had a pet rabbit die from RHD and your cat picked up the virus on its paws when it walked through their garden. There are so many ways it can come in.

I still don't know for sure how both of my outbreaks occurred. I hadn't had visitors, visited anyone with rabbits, or walked in the countryside. I'd not been out foraging for wild greens. The hay I was using was from my usual source and I'd not bought a new bale for about a month; same with my pellets.

NZ:Julia · Sep 1, 2024

NZ:Julia said:
This is really interesting @Bekah-n-Tennessee, I am sorry you have also had this experience. I have been thinking about bio-security since this happened. I can now see there are lots of things I can do differently. The trouble is I have no idea how the virus got in, netting sounds like a good way to stop flys and mosquitos. I don't invite anyone onto my land, it is just myself and Mr NZ.
I think I tramped it around on my shoes and hands once it was established. I didn't know what was happening or how my actions were contributing to the spread.
It sounds like you have established a vaccine protocol that works well. I wonder if there are other general precautions that seem to be helpful as general good practice and also when TSHTF.