THE RABBIT PEST.

Otago Witness, Issue 1874, 21 October 1887, Page 9

THE RABBIT PEST.

(S. A. Register.) 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 Governments of the various colonies hive expended many thousands of pounds upon rabbit, parties and other methods of extinguishing the nuisance, but with only partial succebs, and the sum of £25,000 has been offered for any plan or discovery by which the rabbit caa be exterminated. Some years ago the system wrts tried of inoculating the auimal wifcii a certain disease, but this expedient failed, because it was not conveyed to the progeny further than the second or third gentration, and its effects therefore rapidly died out. There appears now, however, to be a possibility of success in this direction, as Professor Watson, ot the Adelaide University, haß been conducting experiments of a practical and very interesting character with the view of abatinjr, if not of ultimately getting rid of, the rabbit post. The professor has not been instigated in his experiments by offers of any reward, as his researches^ in this directions were commenced about a year ago, when his attention was drawn to a disease amongst rabbits w hich existed in Germany and France. In these countries and in England " bunny " is sought after as on acceptable article of food, and in one year t,he exports from Belgium to London totalled up a value of 23,0U0f . In Ostend and some other places rabbits are reared and kept iv places where their movements are confined, and they are fed upon artificial food— the sequence being that a very destructive disease has atfcaoked them. When this was first discovered, about two years ago, the services of the famous analyst and physician, Pasteur, were brought into requebt, and he gave the subject hio best attention. He discovered that tho disease was tiu erculosis, and that no other animal than the va'ibit would be affected by ifc. The farmers in the noith of Franco were in a great state of anxiety for their herds nwd flocks, but Pasteur's experiment were convincing, and it has since been found that sheep and cattle are quite safe, although the rabbits mny be dying in thousands around Uicm. Professor Watson determined ou trying the experiment of importing some of these diseased rabbi's from Germany to watch for himself the result of the disease, and toasceitiin Avhother it could be made. use of here iv a practical fashion. Four iliotMsed rabbits were brought out in a (toi man vessi-l, v. liich arrived in April last, and as they wen 1 t.U, illy afflicted with tho disease the last of the quartette died within a fortnight after they were la.ided, but not. before theyhad communicated the disease to 6ome 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 from a few rabbits to n vefy great number, and that all other animals are quite s.tfe from its attacks. With the aid of Mr Morceau, the assistant in the dissecting theatre, Professor Watson has had at least 150 rabbits under his observation, and the disease has been kept alive from the time when the first; were imported to the present day. We saw fcbree that were thus afflicted on Thurdday occupying the pen in which the originals were imported One of these, a white buck, is badly diseased, his eyes being nearly closed, and his whole head covered ■with the tubercules, and we were informed that he has only about a fortnight to live. Two others are in the earlier stages of the disease. Experiments have been tried by the professor with cats, dogs, sheep, and other animals, but fhn disease cannot be transmitted to them, and on this p >i«t he is confident. A rabbit, so diseased can acuallybe eaten with impunity, though as an article of diet he would hardly be worth the cooking, as the f ame becomes Attenuated, tl.e little ile&h that is left on the bones hardens and becomes sapless, and the animal is reduced almost to a skeleton at the time of his death. To keep them alive for any length of time requires constant attention and a plentiful supply of watwr and green stuff (which rabbits on a station would not get during the summer), so that the disease would be very rapid in its reults. Another very important feature of the disease is thafc either sex so afflicted loses all procreating power, and the species must therefore die out when the disease has been fairly disseminated amongst them One rabbit would suffice to communicate it to a \vh#le warren, as in plain terms the disease is a l<ind of itch created by small insects ot the lice tribe, and when these have lodged upon the head the animal scratches with its forepaws, and then by licking his paws conveysthe insect into his body. From lhat time ho is (loomed, and so are all his companions who inhabitUie same locality, as the insect on being brush- d offone of the tribe attaches itself to another and multiplies very rapidly. A comparatively Ifirjje cost has already bsen 1 incurred in these experiments and it is to be hoped that the Government will n ake a grant or lend the professor aid in prosecuting his experiments on a larger scale, so that by the time the summer arrives a butch of diseased rabbits nay be ready to be sent into various parts of the colony, where the practical remits of the professor';- researches may be fairly tested.

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