They may be annoying to us, but the recent surge in mosquito numbers could be fatal to rabbits.
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And while farmers and gardeners may not have any problem with that, scores of breeders of rare rabbits face seeing their stocks wiped out.
Calicivirus is readily transmitted by mosquitoes, as is myxomatosis, and the startling rise in mosquito swarms caused by wet weather threatens to spread the diseases widely this summer.
The virus was accidentally released in 1995 after it was brought to a quarantine facility on an island off South Australia for testing as a suitable biological control. It killed 10 million rabbits in two months.
Dr Russell Harrison is head of hospital services at the Lort Smith Animal Hospital. He says breeders need to be carefully examining their animals this summer for signs of either virus.
“With myxomatosis, the rabbit gets a swelling, an oedema, around the eye, so they can’t open their eyes; and they also get swelling around their genitals,” Dr Harrison said.
“There’s no vaccine for myxomatosis, and that’s a decision made by government to maintain an impact on wild populations.
“There is a vaccine for calicivirus; having said that there is a new strain that has evolved for which the vaccine is not as effective.”
That strain is known as K5, and its potential to spread rapidly this year is causing consternation and some grief among rabbit fanciers and parents who have bought rabbits as pets for children. It originated in Korea.
Andrea Mitchell is a member of the Rabbit Breeders Association of Victoria. She’s been breeding and showing rabbits since she was 13.
Ms Mitchell fears her rabbits, and those of her daughter with whom she shares a stud in Mount Pleasant, will be wiped out.
She lost 30 rabbits last year to calicivirus, despite paying $70 a vial for vaccine and administering it herself.
“I had vaccinated the day before they started dying,” Ms Mitchell said.
“The vaccine only saved a handful of them. I was losing four to five rabbits a day for just over a week. We lost all of our top, show-winning rabbits that had taken years to develop.
“It was horrendous. The worst part of it was having to witness my daughter bawling her eyes out as she cradled a dying rabbit, screaming in her arms.”
Suggestions for reducing the threat to pets:
- Bring your pet rabbits indoors at dusk and dawn;
- Mosquito-proof your rabbits’ enclosures with screen material;
- Use citronella candles or lemon eucalyptus oil to repel mosquitoes;
- Remove build-ups of water around your home, as stagnant water allows mosquitoes to breed.
