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Breakthroughs in rabbit, mouse pest wars
5 Aug 2002
The Co-operative Research Centre for Pest Animal Control has made breakthroughs in techniques for controlling feral rabbit and mouse populations. In the rabbit test, 80 per cent of the female rabbits in a captive colony were rendered infertile after being infected with an engineered strain of the myxoma virus. It is a new non-lethal strain of the virus which killed hundreds of millions of rabbits when first released 50 years ago. The CRC's CEO Dr Tony Peacock said that if similar sterility in wild rabbits could be achieved, their numbers would decline rapidly as a result of age and natural mortality.
The CRC is also holding its first field trial of a sexually-transmitted virus that will produce lifetime sterility in female mice. It is a modified mouse herpes virus called murine cytomegalovirus, which has caused sterility in 100 per cent of female mice for a minimum of 150 days in laboratory mice. Dr Peacock said that even preventing 30 per cent of females breeding would prevent mouse plagues. The virus is harmless to other rodents, only infecting the European house mouse.
Herald Sun, 4/8/02, page 30.
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