DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1650, 22 October 1887, Page 3

DESTRUCTION OF RABBITS.

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 have expended many thousands of pounds upon rabbit parties and other methods of extinguishing the nuisance, but with only partial success, aud the sum of £25,000 has been offered for any plan or discovery by which the rabbit can be exterminated. Some years sgo the system was tried of inoculating the animal with a certain disease, but this expedient failed, because it was not conveyed to the progeny further than the second or third generation, and its effects Soon died ont. There appears now, however, to be a possibility of success in this direction, *s Professor Watson, of the Adelaide University, has been conducting experiments of a practical and very interesting character with a view of abating, if not of ultimately getting nd 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 ye j r

ago, whan his attention was drawn to a disease among rabbitci 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 f. In Ostend and some other places rabbits ace reared and kept in places where their movements are confined, and they are fed upon artificial food—the sequence being that a very destructive disease hasattacked them. When this was first discovered, about two years ago, the services of the famous analyst and physician, Pasteur, were brought io request, and he gave the subject bis best attention. He discovered that the disease was tuberculosis and that no other animal than the rabbit would be

affeqted 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 while rabbits may be dying in thousands around them. Professor Watson 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 not 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 were fatally afflicted with the disease, the last of the quartette died within a fortnight after they were landed, but 'not .before they had communicated the disease to some living rabbits that were

•placed io the same cage with them. From that time till the present the professor bes been experimenting until he

has come to the conclusion that the diiease can actually be conveyed by contact from a few rabbits to a very great Dumber, and that all other animals are qoite. safe from its attacks. With the aid of Mr Morceau, the assistant in the dissecting theatre, Professor Watson has bad at leant 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 three that were thus sfflicted on Thursday occupying the pen in which th» originals were imported. One of these, a white -buck, Jr badly diseased, his eyes being nearly closed, and bin whole head covered with the lubercnles, and we were informed that he has only about a fortnight to live. Two others are in the earlier stages of the disease. Experiment have been tried by the professor with cats, dogs, sheep, and o her animals, but the disease cannot be transmitted to them, and on this point he is confident, A rabbit so diseased can actually be eaten with impunity, though as an article of diet it would be hardly worth the. cooking, as the frame b- corns attenuated, the little flesh that is left on the bone hardens and becomes sapless, and the animal is reduced almost to a skeleton at the time of hia death. To keep them alive for any length of time requires constant attehtio* and a plentiful supply of water and green • 'stuff (which rabbits on a station would not get duri* g the summer), so that the disc'ise would be very rapid in its results. Another very important feature of th# disease is that either sex so ifflc’ed loses all procreative puffer, and I tie species must therefore die out when the disease has been fairly diaemiuated amongst them.

One rabbit would suffice to communicate it to a whole warren, and in plain terms the disease is a kind of itch created by small insects of the lice tribe, and when these hare lodged upon the head the animal ecratc' os with its forepaws, and then by licking his paws conveys the insect into his body. From that time he is doomed, and so are all his companions who inhabit the same locality, as the insect on being brushed off of one of the tribe attaches itself to another and multiplies very rapidly. A comparatively large cost has already been incurred in in these experiments, and it is to be 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.— South Australian Register,