biological control of european rabbit (oryctolagus

cuniculus) using rcd (rabbit calicivirus disease)

why are rabbits a pest?

rabbits are a very problematic pest in new zealand as they consume large quantities of
vegetation, eating the roots of plants causing errosion, and eating the food of livestock in
new zealand farms. the overall cost of their pestilence can not be measured, but it is
estimated that around $30 million new zealand is spent a year to undo the damage of
these pests.

it is estimated that currently over half the new zealand landmass has been inhabited by
rabbits, and the rabbit gestation period is very short, on average around 29-30 days, and
each litter can have up to 50 kittens. in new zealand, the rabbits have no native predators
(in europe predators such as the iberian lynx and spanish imperial eagle would prey on
the rabbits and maintain a steady population) to control the population level, this along
with their short gestation and high litter number contribute to why the rabbit population is
so out of control.

why rabbits were originally introduced to new zealand?

rabbits were introduced into new zealand in the early 1840s as game hunt. their pelts
could be used to make warm clothes, their meat for food, and hunting the rabbit itself
would be a passtime for the early colonial settlers.the rabbits were not considered a pest
until thirty years later, in the 1870s, when the population grew out of control. it became
evident that the rabbits, which were introduced for helpful purposes, were a pest that
needed to be dealth with. the early settlers employed methods such as shooting, trapping,
and poisoning the rabbits(usually an arsenic based poison) to maintain control of the
population. natural predators of the rabbits (such as stoats, ferrets, and weasals) were
introduced to new zealand. unfortunately, these predators became pests themselves when
they started to hunt another target - new zealand’s native birds, who also had very few
native predators. rabbits have become a secondary foodsource for these predators,
choosing to prey on the more helpless new zealand birds instead. it would take another
century or so before a viable biological control method would come along in the form of
rabbit calicivirus disease (or rcd for short).

a european rabbit ( oryctolagus cuniculus)

what is rcd?
the disease was first noted in china in 1984; it occurs naturally and is currently reported
to be most effective controlling rabbits in parts of europe, mostly spain but was not used
in the southern hemisphere until the late 1980s.

in 1990, rcd (rabbit calicivirus disease) was illegally introduced

to new zealand by farmers who were desperate for a solution to
their pest problems. tests were carried out by the austrailian and
new zealand governments, but before they were legalised new
zealand farmers smuggled the virus into the country. they
achieved this by bringing back dead rabbits from austrailia, and
using a broken down form of the virus.
there are many different caliciviruses. individual members of the family have been found
in a wide range of species, including humans, a pygmy chimpanzee, calves, pigs, cats,
dogs, mink, skunks, rabbits, hares, sea lions, walruses and dolphins. rabbit calicivirus
disease is a family of viruses which cause haemorrhagic diseases in rabbits (called rabbit
calicivirus disease or rabbit haemorrhagic disease).

how does rcd work?

rcd causes rapid blood clots in major organs such as lungs, heart and kidneys. these clots
block blood vessels and result in death from heart and respiratory failure in between
thirty and forty hours. this disease rapidly kills mature but not young rabbits, but affects
no other animal species. it can be transferred directly from rabbit to rabbit but also can be
transferred by other carriers like flies and fleas.

what are the advantages of rcd?

there is no scientific evidence that rcd infects other animals so it is a much safer,
environmentally friendly way to control pests, as it also limits the need to use chemical
pesticides. there seems to be no pain involved with the rabbits’ deaths so rcd seems to be
a humane extermination method.

as the rabbit population drops, it gives the land and vegetation a chance to regenerate and
allows for an increase in quality of agricultural production. a reduce in the rabbit
population also means a reduce in the populations of other pest species which use rabbits
as a food source.

the disease spreads very quickly and so there is a large immediate drop in the rabbit
population. the cost is also reasonably low because with just one infection with the virus,
many rabbit deaths can occur.

what are the disadvantages of rcd?

no biological control agent is one hundred percent effective; only rabbits which are eight
weeks or older are actually susceptible to the disease. it was also found that just a fifty
centimetre gap was enough to prevent transmission of the virus and as the disease is
quick acting, there isn’t a guarantee the disease could be easily spread resulting in some
quite variable number of deaths in each release, for example, when trialled in the uk, the
first attempt resulted in a 15% decrease, and in the second attempt there was a 71%
decrease. but the whole idea of biological control is that you only reduce the numbers of
the pest to manageable levels, so you must also use other methods.

with a viral biological control, it is often possible for the subject species to grow immune
to the virus.and because the virus, which was originally smuggled into new zealand, was
broken down, and not the full strength, many rabbits were immune or grew immunities to
the virus. due to their high reproductive rate, the immune rabbits survived and mated
creating generation after generation of immune rabbits. when the government released the
legal strains, they found that much of the surviving rabbit population were not effected by
it.

conclusion
rabbits continue to be a problem in new zealand despite many eradication attempts. using
rcd does seem to have its benefits most notably its effectiveness in the beginning, but the
disadvantages seemed to be too great. the probability of mutations and rabbit’s immunity
from the disease is quite high in such a large rabbit population. rcd would be good if the
results weren’t so variable and could be controlled better.

a change in the rabbit population directly and indirectly affects other species populations
and so that would have to be taken into account when rcd is released in an area.
 bibliography

encyclopaedia:
usbourne dictionary of science

book:
hokkanen, heikki m. t. & lynch, james m. ‘biological control - benefits and risks’
cambridge university press

website:
http://www.maf.govt.nz
http://www.doc.govt.nz
http://www.csiro.au/communication/rabbits/rcd_book.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/european_rabbit