October 18th 1995

The CSIRO, farmers, environmentalists and rabbits all recieved a shock on Sunday 14th October 1995 when a disease, currently being researched for potential release on the mainland and was quarantined on an island off the South Australian Coast, was found on the South Australian mainland.

This has serious ramifications for CSIRO who are researching the potential of RCD (rabbit calciferous disease) and highlights that scientific rigour is falible and questions the safety and ethics of importing diseases into Australia.

"Farmers cheer rabbit virus research"

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Vice-president of the NSW Farmers' Association, Rick Wright, said yesterday media suggestions that the virus could represent some type of an environmental disaster was "laughable".

Mr Wright said there was absolutely no danger to farmed or pet rabbits as an effective vaccine was available and was going through government accreditation.

However, the "escape" of the virus from the quarantine net around the experimental site on Wardang Island in Spencer Gulf to the mainland has alarmed domestic rabbit breeders, wild rabbit trappers and environmentalists.

Australia's only licensed exporter of rabbit meat, Outback Foods, has been stopped shipping rabbit following the discovery of the virus on the South Australian mainland. Managing director, Graham Hack, said the release of the virus would end rabbit exports.

RSPCA president Hugh Writh has called for an end to the tests saying foreign viruses have a habit of behaving in a different way than scientists expect.

The deputy director of the National Farmers Federation. Robert Hadler, said that whilst there was concern about the escaped virus the CSIRO was confident it could be contained.

The federation endorsed the sentiments of Mr Wright but accepted that caution was needed and the community needed to be confident that only wild rabbits would be the only victims and that native wildlife would not be harmed.

Mr Hadler was concerned that the "knee jerk" reaction of some people could undermine the research program.

He said it should be remembered that rabbits did significant damage to the environment.

It had been estimated that rabbits cost for South Australian graziers about $20 million a year and this could be extrapolated to about $100,000 Australia wide.

Mr Hadler said that the discovery of the virus on the mainland had put the research back a step but the federation was looking forward to the virus being officially released with community backing.

He said the former prime-minister, Bob Hawke, had launched the billion trees program by personally planting a tree in the Riverina area but within a week it had been eaten by rabbits.

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