Originally Posted by
TimF
You are talking abotu Calici virus - which was illegally imported to Nz rom Oz (SA) in some rabbit carcass It did not mutate. It was released no Sth Wandong Island and it seems fliles carried it over to the coast and into SA proper while testing was being done on how effective it was on rabbits. THe whole idea was that if it were shown safe it was going to be brewed up on large scale and spread all over at once.
The Calicivirus was imported as a live virus from Spain where it has been for generations as a rabbit virus. Possibly it could be rejigged genetically** to make it more virulent. Well it's in Nz, it make have kicked off a few rabbits in the SI, but it's not the cure all (zero rabbits and hares ) that Australians hoped for.
** GMO stuff (eg Canola) is allowed with restrictions in some Oz states. It's forbidden in Nz but I think that applies more to plants and edible animals. You'd likely never get much funding for GM work in any case in a Nz university lab.
