RABBIT VIRUS TEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22984, 11 March 1938, Page 16

RABBIT VIRUS TEST

PROMISING RESULTS FIFTY PER CENT EFFECTIVE RESULTS IN 'THREE MONTHS Further information regarding tho test of tho rabbit virus (myxomatosis) which is being experimented with at Wardang Island, off tho South Australian Coast, and which was fully described in a recent issue of tho Nkw Zkat.and Hkuald, hiss now conio to hand. „ , , . Tho Council for scientific and Industrial Research advises that about o0 per cent of the rabbits on the 90-acte enclosed block hare already been destroyed, although i'o is only three months since infected rabbits were liberated.

Tho officer in charge of the experiments stated that till© Wardang Island test had been n'Uido as difficult as possible to show the potentialities of the virus as an effective means of controlling rabbits. The death among the rabbits could have, been made twice as rapid. . When the virus was introduced it was estimated that thero were between 400 and 500 rabbits in tho enclosure. About 00 wore added by breeding increase. but tho virus had worked so effectively tlur; thero were now only about 200 left. Had the v'rr?: not been introduced, breeding probably would have raised the original number to 800 by now. 'J']ie experiment on tho island would ho continued for at least another two months, and about the iniddlo of tho year it was hoped to plaeo tho complete results obtained in both laboratory and field experiments before tho Agricultural Council.

This would decide whether the virus offered a valuable means of assisting to control .Australia's rabbit population. Before tho virus could be liberated, it would have to he released from quarantine, under which it was still strictly controlled,

Tho Wartlang Island experiments had been closely supervised, and tho rabbits on the infected block had. been prevented from escaping.