Myxamatosis in Rabbits

[muldonach]

Originally Posted by patti

Thank you for your replies. As I said in my message the laying down of myxy by farmers was confirmed by my local vet and I am pretty sure that the white foam is the way it is distributed over the fields, as we saw this being laid down, and within a very short time after seeing this there were no rabbits in the field. I would loved to be proved wrong. So if anyone out there can give me any other reason for this foam being put in the fields I would be very pleased to hear it. Also I would be very interested if anyone can confirm whether the farmer is performing an illegal act by laying down myxy on purpose. My local vet seemed to treat this action as perfectly acceptable and did not imply that it was in anyway illegal on the contary, the way he was talking it was the most normal thing for a farmer to do.

Hmmm - its not unknown for country dwellers to have a sense of humour when dealing with less experienced members of the public

[twopoke]

myxomatosis is a shocking and crule fate for a rabbit. it seems stupid to encourage it to spread.
rabbits if being a problem for farmers should be shot/ cought and eaten!

[eeyore]

Originally Posted by muldonach

Relax - the white blobs are "bout" markers to monitor the application of fertiliser.

If anyone intended to transfer myxi they are hardly likely to advertise the process are they? If, heaven forbid, they did want to transfer it it would be by introducing infected rabbits which are easy enough to catch.

cheers
mac

Lol - the idea of farmers spraying myxi from tractor boom sprayers is laughable - for one thing where would they get that ammount of biological agent and why would they bother when they could just stuff a diseased rabbit down a hole.

also the absence of rabbits 'a short time later' is clearly nothing to do with myxi as it doesnt kill that fast - chances are they were frightened off by the spraying activity (which was almost certainly fertiliser), and either went to nground or moved into another feild

[Farplace]

Myxi is spread by fleas and other blood-sucking beasties, like mosquitos. the only other way that I know, that a rabbit can contract Myxomatosis, is by having a bad reaction to a live vaccine. But this is rare.

[fairplay]

The mystery here is what sort of 'vet' is it that would spread these false rumours around - assuming Patti heard right ?

Neil.

[Meta menardi]

Originally Posted by fairplay

The mystery here is what sort of 'vet' is it that would spread these false rumours around - assuming Patti heard right ?

Neil.

At a distance, we cannot know how the question was phrased or what answer was given.

Imagine : "How did this disease get here?"

Vet (preoccupied with task in hand), "Spread deliberately".

No misinformation given, and vets can be quite busy, so not voluble.

[fairplay]

I would have thought Patti was being quite specific in her post (No 77), but we can only take Patti at face value, and the face I see is one being perhaps careless with words ? A vet worth his salt would know it would be illegal for a farmer to spread a disease, and by Patti throwing in the words " ... and within a very short time ... ... there were no rabbits in the field" - this seems to conjure up the words 'flights of fancy'

Neil.