Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T14:28:18.546Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Myxomatosis: changes in the epidemiology of myxomatosis coincident with the establishment of the European rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) in the Mallee Region of Victoria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

Rosamond C. H. Shepherd  and
J. W. Edmonds
Rosamond C. H. Shepherd
Affiliation:
Keith Turnbull Research Institute, Vermin and Noxious Weeds Destruction Board, Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Frankston 3199, Victoria, Australia
J. W. Edmonds
Affiliation:
Keith Turnbull Research Institute, Vermin and Noxious Weeds Destruction Board, Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Frankston 3199, Victoria, Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Outbreaks of myxomatosis during the winter or spring have coincided with the establishment of the European rabbit flea in the Mallee region. The severity of these outbreaks has varied from causing complete suppression of the normal spring increase in rabbit numbers to being completely ineffective in a year in which late spring rains allowed rabbit breeding to extend into the early summer.

In 1973 and 1974 effective spring myxomatosis caused heavy mortality in kittens before they emerged from the warrens. The age of the population increased as the result of few young rabbits coming into the population and of the lessened stress on old rabbits in a low summer-autumn population. This effect was reversed in the late-breeding year, 1976, when flea numbers were apparently too low to maintain a spring outbreak and rabbit numbers increased rapidly.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 81 , Issue 3 , December 1978 , pp. 399 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

References

REFERENCES

Edmonds, J. W., Nolan, I. F., Shepherd, , Rosamond, C. H. & Gocs, A. (1975). Myxomatosis: the virulence of field strains of myxoma virus in a population of wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.)) with high resistance to myxoma. Journal of Hygiene 74, 417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mansi, W. (1957). The study of some viruses by the plate gel diffusion precipitin test. Journal of Comparative Pathology 67, 297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Myers, K. & Gilbert, N. (1968). Determination of age of wild rabbits in Australia. Journal of Wildlife Management 32, 841.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, , Rosamond, C. H. & Edmonds, J. W. (1976). The establishment and spread of Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) and its location on the host, Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.), in the Mallee region of Victoria. Australian Wildlife Research 3, 29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, , Rosamond, C. H. & Edmonds, J. W. (1977). Myxomatosis: the transmission of a highly virulent strain of myxoma virus by the European rabbit flea Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale) in the Mallee region of Victoria. Journal of Hygiene 79, 405.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shepherd, , Rosamond, C. H., Edmonds, J. W. & Nolan, I. F. (1978). A review of methods used to capture live wild rabbits in Victoria. Journal of Wildlife Management (in the Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepherd, , Rosamond, C. H., Edmonds, J. W., Nolan, I. F. & Gocs, A. (1978). Myxomatosis in the Mallee Region of Victoria, Australia. Journal of Hygiene 81, 239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sobey, W. R., Conolly, D. & Adams, K. M. (1966). Myxomatosis: a simple method of sampling blood and testing for circulating soluble antigens or antibodies to them. Australian Journal of Science 28, 354.Google Scholar