Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:27:09.668Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies in the epidemiology of infectious myxomatosis of rabbits: II. Field experiments, August–November 1950, and the first epizootic of myxomatosis in the riverine plain of south-eastern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

K. Myers
K. Myers
Affiliation:
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Wildlife Survey Section, Field Station, Albury, N.S.W., Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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.

An account is given of experiments designed to study the spread of myxomatosis in populations of rabbits living under natural conditions on a number of sites in the Eastern Riverine Plain of south-eastern Australia. In five different trials the disease spread from inoculated rabbits, but failed to gain momentum and died down within a few weeks of its introduction.

In December 1950, when the disease was persisting at low incidence on one test site and seemed to have died out in the others, an epizootic broke out in the neighbourhood which spread, in a few months, over the greater part of south-eastern Australia. The only factor, apart from climatic ones, which could account for this sudden change in the activity of the disease was the development of large populations of two rabbit-feeding mosquitoes, Anopheles annulipes and Culex annulirostris. A close correlation was demonstrated, on the flats bordering the Murray River, between the distribution of these insects and myxomatosis activity.

The author is indebted to Mr F. N. Ratcliffe, officer-in-charge, Mr J. le G. Brereton, Mr J. Calaby, and Dr R. Mykytowycz, all of the Wildlife Survey Section, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, for assistance given during the course of the work and to Mr Ratcliffe, and Prof. F. Fenner of the Australian National University, for guidance in the presentation of the results.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , March 1954 , pp. 47 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1954

References

REFERENCES

Aragão, H. de B. (1943). Mem. Inst. Osw. Cruz, 38, i, 93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, L. B. & Mules, M. W. (1944). J. Coun. sci. industr. Res. Aust. 17, ii, 79.Google Scholar
Butler, B. E. (1950). Aust. J. agric. Res. 1, 231.Google Scholar
Calaby, J. H. (1951). Emu, 51, 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenner, F., Marshall, I. D. & Woodroofe, G. M. (1953). J. Hyg., Camb., 51, 225.Google Scholar
Fennessy, B. V. (1954). In preparation.Google Scholar
Marshall, I. D., Dyce, A., Poole, W. & Fenner, F. (1954). J. Hyg., Camb. (in preparation).Google Scholar
Martin, C. J. (1936). Bull. Coun. sci. industr. Res. Aust. no. 96.Google Scholar
Myers, K., Marshall, I. D. & Fenner, F. (1954). J. Hyg., Camb. (in preparation).Google Scholar
Mykytowycz, R. (1951). Unpublished observations.Google Scholar
Mykytowycz, R. (1954). In preparation.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, F. N., Myers, K., Fennessy, B. V. & Calaby, J. H. (1952). Nature, Lond., 170, 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tidswell, F. (1907). Report on the Broughton Island Experiments, N.S.W. Legislative Assembly—Votes and Proceedings, 2nd Session, Vol. 1, p. 439.Google Scholar
Tidswell, F. (1908). Virus for the Destruction of Rabbits. Sydney: Department of Public Health.Google Scholar