That's probably the wrong spelling, but you know what I am talking about. Horrible rabbit disease.
Sadly, their appears to be a bit of it about these here parts (Brighton). I was wondering how this affects the food chain. Is it a benefit to predators like foxes and raptors, being such easy prey. Or do they avoid obviously diseased animals?
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Myxomatosis tends to re-occur in areas every few years, often when rabbit numbers are high after several good seasons and because of a high density of rabbits it makes it easy for the disease to spread and it can significantly reduce rabbit numbers. Once rabbit numbers get below a certain level the disease usually dies out because it can't spread through the population as well and the infection rate drops.
Predators can safely scavenge from an infected rabbit - the disease doesn't affect carnivores only rabbits and so they can benefit from an excess of carrion however the disease tends to kill quickly so there is a bust of food and then nothing so there can be a food shortage. There are other environmental effects also. The UK extinction of the large blue butterfly was directly related to the disappearence of rabbits due to the disease - the large blue depends upon tiny ants which in turn need short cropped grass - something that was provided by the rabbits but when they disappeared so to did most of the ants, and as a result the butterfly which depended upon the ants became extinct.
However, there does seem to be an immunity developing to the disease among rabbits so it is unlikely to eradicate them all now so there will always be some rabbits left to re-build numbers. It is even likely that the disease, unless it mutates, will die out if this apparent immunity continues to spread through the rabbit population. In the short term, a shortage of rabbits, in particular young rabbits which are the easiest to catch, will have an impact on predators as there are fewer to go around. However, rabbits do breed like rabbits and the effect isn't a long-term one and numbers soon bounce back.
Predators though are more often than not used to having to cope with prey cycles from plentiful to scarce prey, while there may be a decline in predators as a result if there are no alternative food sources once prey numbers build up so too do the predator numbers. It is very much a part of nature and though the disease may not be natural to the UK, the cycle of rabbit density is not an unnatural one, it is just caused by a different factor.
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Phew - that's what I call an answer.
Many thanks.
Yes, what an answer Kat!
I am just about old enough to remember the Myxomatosis outbreak in the 1950's when it decimated the rabbit population over the whole of the country. The farmers thought it was a miracle and were dancing with delight. The rest of us were desolate.
Cheers, Linda.
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I unstand that rabbits can be a pain as they eat most things we grow, but i don't think it was the right thing to do giving the rabbits Myxomatosis, it can take up to 14 days for the poor rabbit to die, a nasty way to go.
its good that the birds are safe to eat the rabbits. but there has to be a better way.
Hey farmer, farmer, put away the D.D.T now. Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees, please!
Janet D said: I unstand that rabbits can be a pain as they eat most things we grow, but i don't think it was the right thing to do giving the rabbits Myxomatosis, it can take up to 14 days for the poor rabbit to die, a nasty way to go. its good that the birds are safe to eat the rabbits. but there has to be a better way.
Myxomatosis isn't used as a rabbit control any more, hasn't been for a long time, however it is in the rabbit population and therefore outbreaks occur regularly. There isn't really anything that can be done to stop it now so it is pretty much a part of rabbit life, though as I said earlier there does seem to be an immunity developing to it so given time it is possible that the disease will die out if the immunity spreads through the population.
While it may not have been the right thing to do introducing the disease, this was done over 50 years ago when animal welfare was far from a priority. Nothing can be done to change that now.