Thread: Rabbit virus breakout?

We have had a huge rabbit problem on farm and hubby has been out with the 22 taking out as many as he could for weeks and weeks but suddenly they have started dropping on there own. I found a wee one while setting fences last week, it was all lethargic and dying and dead rabbits are showing up everywhere. I’m guessing it’s that Calicivirus? I wouldn’t think poison seeing as they are dying across the entire farm and we haven’t laid anything.
Has anyone here dealt with the virus on their farm? Iv been told it skips a generation but also told it will wipe out everything. Are the live rabbits harmful to the dog if possibly infected? How long does the virus hang around for?

They all die off here every March. They have just died and now I struggle to find one but the Hawks are fat.

Originally Posted by Moa Hunter

They all die off here every March. They have just died and now I struggle to find one but the Hawks are fat.

Is that from the virus? Yeah we have a tonne of hawks around at the moment making a mess with them all.

young ones seem more susceptible. seen the odd young one dead, but not adult with any issues when inspecting organs.

Originally Posted by bully

young ones seem more susceptible. seen the odd young one dead, but not adult with any issues when inspecting organs.

I haven’t inspected any of them but they do all seem younger, not baby’s though.

Last time I examined a rabbit with the virus was in Oz but it had Mxyo. It's eyes were all gummed up and otherwise close to death.
Don't know what symtoms rabbits here show though.
And as pointed out the rabbits here also seasonaly die off before appearing in great numbers again.
The peak of them dying off is usually a bit earlier than now though.

Originally Posted by zimmer

Last time I examined a rabbit with the virus was in Oz but it had Mxyo. It's eyes were all gummed up and otherwise close to death.
Don't know what symtoms rabbits here show though.
And as pointed out the rabbits here also seasonaly die off before appearing in great numbers again.
The peak of them dying off is usually a bit earlier than now though.

These all look healthy enough from the outside, even with “seasonally dying off” would you expect to see them in such large numbers and not overly old? I didn’t know rabbits died off seasonally.

Two things, virus! you will usually see red nose and lips and of course the virus needs flys to move it around and down here it's probably to late.
The other is weather! long grass and wet weather! IF there hasn't been a poison drop.
Wet cold weather, nocks them for a six with flu, there are studies in England that prove the point.
I have seen it reduce the population before winter, it's common and of course winter they stay tucked up in their warren system so numbers are lower, until spring.
I've heard another report on that line, but difficult to say just want without inspection.
KH

Someone asked a similar question a few years ago, someone suggested coccidiosis, apparently kills a lot of the young ones. Other animals get it, but each species has a different pathogen (calves get it, we had one ag day calf nearly die).

Flu hasnt worked around here yet on the rabbits,il let you know which year it does.Its not winter up north yet is it.Never mind they are dying off on yr farm,you so lucky.

I had a farm I used to shoot a few on (Farmlet probably a better description) After shooting it a few times over a month or so, dead ones started popping up in paddocks that I would not shoot. these paddocks were between the house and a main road so there was no way I could find a safe direction to aim in so left them alone. A month or so after that the population dwindled. I wonder if maybe a few shot ones lived long enough to get into a burrow to die and that the rotting carcasses in the burrows caused some sort of poison/ disease that affected ones I was not shooting at.

Numbers are down on some of the farms I shoot, other farms it seems to be fairly average in terms of numbers.
I haven't seen any young ones and what we are nailing are big and healthy as you would expect before winter.
The Easter bunny hunt got reasonable numbers but will achieve bugger all , in two weeks it will be business as usual.

Originally Posted by viper

Numbers are down on some of the farms I shoot, other farms it seems to be fairly average in terms of numbers.
I haven't seen any young ones and what we are nailing are big and healthy as you would expect before winter.
The Easter bunny hunt got reasonable numbers but will achieve bugger all, in two weeks it will be business as usual.

Numbers are down significantly in most places I think @viper despite what some people will have you believe. Where landowners have put in even a minimum amount of effort there seems to be some level of control but you can always find places where rabbits are in stupid numbers - usually where landowners have done nothing and think its "someboy elses problem".

The Easter Bunny Hunt rounded up 12,000 rabbits this year. This number might seem impressive to some but for me this is only a quarter of the numbers taken in the mid-2000's, clearly demonstrating numbers are quite low. In previous years the competition was held over 24 hours whereas this year it was held over 48 hours. To win this competition you've always needed to bring back at least 1000 rabbits. If the number of rabbits out there was as high as previous years you'd have expected the winning team to bring in around 2000 rabbits as they had twice as long out in the field. This year the winning team won with a total of 1185 rabbits, a total typical of the last 25 years, but with twice as long to harvest that number. My team came 4th with 840 rabbits and we worked hard to get every one of those.

Some of the Karens up here are whinging because of the threat to their pet bunnies, others because the virus isn't getting up here fast enough to deal with the "rabbit plague" (yeah right!). Personally, I'm not a fan of poisoning or viruses, but whatever.

Originally Posted by viper

Numbers are down on some of the farms I shoot, other farms it seems to be fairly average in terms of numbers.
I haven't seen any young ones and what we are nailing are big and healthy as you would expect before winter.
The Easter bunny hunt got reasonable numbers but will achieve bugger all , in two weeks it will be business as usual.

Yea,I run into some Easter bunny shooters on the smallish block I hunt on Saturday, I was surprised that the farmer put his land in as the numbers aren't high.
When I saw them zooming around on qauds, I wandered over to chat to them, and got ' there ain't no rabbits here mate', ('but we won't of got all of em'. I was less than amused, but stayed polite ( nuttin off won't solve anything).
P.s. I did manage to get 1 tho. Haha.