FATAL DISEASE OF RABBITS.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 6905, 10 November 1887, Page 3

FATAL DISEASE OF RABBITS.

[South Australian Chi % onicle.'\

A question of very great importance not only to this -colony but to the whole of Australia is how to deal with the rabbit pest. The Government of the various colonies have expended many thousand of pounds upon rabbit parties and other , methods- of extinguishing the nuisance, but with only partial success, and the sum of £25,000 has been offered for any plan or discovery by which the rabbit can be exterminated. Some 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 1 further than the second or third generation, and its effects therefore rapidly died out. There appears now, however, to be a possibility of succesain this direction, as 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. The professor has not been instigated In his experiments by offers of any reward, as his researches in this direction " were commenced about a year ago, when his . attention was drawn to a disease amongst rabbits which existed in Germany and France. In these 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 Ostend and some other places rabbits are (eared 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 Bad physician, Pasteur, were brought into request, and he gave the subject his 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 are quite safe, . although the rabbits may be dying in thousands around them. Professor Wateon determined on trying the experiment of importing some of these diseased rabbits from Germany to watch for himself the result of the disease, and to ascertain whether it could be made use of here in a practical fashion. Four diseased rabbits were brought out in a German vessel, which arrived in April last, and as they ' Vere fatallyafflicted with the disease the fast of the quartette died withiu a fortfiight 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 he has come to the conclusion that the disease can actually be conveyed by contact fcnaa few rabbits to a very great number, *nd that all other animals are quite safe *«Hn its attacks. With the aid of Mr Morttau, the assistant in the dissecting theatre, Professor Watson has had at least 150 rabbits under his observation, •a* the disease has been kept alive from J™ time when the first were imported to the present day. We saw three that were *nus afflicted last week occupying the pen ™ which the originals were imported. *Jne of these, a white buck, is badly diseased, his eyes being nearly closed, and wrwholehead covered with the tubercles, and we were informed that he has only about a fortnight to live. Two others are w the earlier stages of the disease. Experiments have been tried by the profes *°t with cats, dogs, sheep, and other animals, but the disease cannot be transmitted to them, and on this point he is eosfldent. A rabbit so diseased can actually be eaten with impunity, though M an article of diet he would hardly be worth the cooking, as the frame becomes the little flesh that is left on - .™ bm » hardens and becomes sapless tad the animal is reduced almost to a fKeleton at the time of his death. To seep them alive for any length of time retires constant attention and a plentiful S y Of water and ereen stuff (which rabbits on a station would not get during We summer), so that the disease would be J**T rapid in its results. Another very feature o f the dissa-se is tha «ther sex so afflicted loses all procreating I«wer and the species must therefore die •at when the disease has been fairly dis-

Mmlnated amongst tfiem. - One rabbit" woad suffice to communicate It to a «lole warren, aa fn plain terms the disease is a kind of itch created by small insects of the lice tribe, and when these navo lodged upon the head the animal scratches with its forepaws, and then by ucKing Ins paws conveys the insect into nis body. From that time he is doomed, and so are all his companions who inhabit tie same locality, as the insect on being brushed off one of the tribe attaches itself to another and multiplies very rapidly. A comparatively large cost has already been incurred in these experiments, and it is to oe 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 be sent into various parts of the colony where the practical results of the professor s researches may be fairly tested.