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Rabbit control benefit of $4 billion over 30 years

Sheep Central, March 21, 2022

NSW Local Land Services officer Rhett Robinson lays carrots laced with RHDV1 K5. Image – NSW LLS.

BIOLOGICAL rabbit control is expected to save Australian agriculture $4 billion over the next 30 years, a new report has predicted.

After a peak in the rabbit population to 600 million in the 1940s, the introduction of several rabbit biocontrol agents since the 1950s have played a critical role in reducing rabbit numbers and their impacts.

https://invasives.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Benefits-of-Rabbit-Biocontrol-web.pdf

The new report – Benefits of Rabbit Biocontrol in Australia: An Update was released today by Centre for Invasive Species Solutions chief executive officer, Andreas Glanznig. It shows that the combined efforts of scientists, governments and land managers to control the pest have resulted in huge benefits for primary producers and threatened species.

“The value of new rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus variants naturalised since 2014 to Australian agriculture is expected to save $4 billion over the next 30 years”, Mr Glanznig said.

“This builds on the benefits already achieved over a 60-year period of $81.8 billion, following the release of the myxoma virus in 1950 and the first rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus in 1995.”

The report also reveals that the removal of rabbits at a landscape scale is hugely beneficial for the environment: allowing native vegetation to thrive, causing feral cat and fox numbers to plummet, and native mammals to bounce back.

Rabbits have taken a severe toll on native wildlife. Image – Chris Lane.

Mr Glanznig said while the older generation of Australians can recall the devastating ability of rabbits to multiply into plague proportions, their cute, harmless persona should not cause us to lower our guard against this old adversary.

“You only have to watch some of the old black and white footage from the 1950s to see how destructive rabbits can be in large numbers.

“They are absolute eating machines, consuming around 15 per cent of their body weight a day, and costing Australian agriculture around $206 million every year”, he said.

Rabbits have taken a severe toll on native wildlife since they were introduced to Australia. They can begin reproducing at four months old and in favourable conditions may produce five or more litters year, or around 50‒60 offspring every year.

The CISS said Australia’s approach to controlling rabbits has been continuously underpinned by science: from the myxoma virus release in 1950 — which killed 99.8 per cent of infected rabbits — to the coordinated national releases of two rabbit haemorrhagic disease viruses with the most recent being in 2017.

“We need to be absolutely tenacious in keeping ahead of the rabbit’s ability to develop genetic resistance, because even small numbers of rabbits can have really negative impacts on native vegetation and animals including 322 nationally threatened species and nine ecological communities,” Mr Glanznig said.

“We know that Mulga, for instance, are impacted by rabbits with densities as low as 1 rabbit per 100 hectares — that’s the equivalent of one rabbit per 90 rugby league playing fields.”

Long-term scientific monitoring has revealed that the release of rabbit haemorrhagic disease viruses is the single most important and cost-effective conversation action for small, threatened mammals in the southern arid zone, and a range of taxa and ecosystems in recent decades, the centre said.

“In just one example, scientists have found that the abundance of small mammals in Australia’s arid zone — such as the Dusky Hopping-Mouse, the Spinifex Hopping Mouse, and the Plains Mouse — increased by 365 per cent with the arrival of the first rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus.”

“This shows that rabbit biocontrol is fundamental to protecting Australia’s globally important wildlife and threatened species, as well as generating benefits to agriculture worth several hundred million dollars every year.

“It is a technology that keeps on giving for our environment and primary industries.”

The Centre for Invasive Species Solutions is now working on the fourth phase of a long-term rabbit biocontrol pipeline strategy that is pursuing potential new biocontrol agents that include genetic biocontrol technologies, more efficient ways to monitor rabbit abundance impacts through new satellite imaging methodologies, and the use of artificial intelligence.

“A long-term strategic approach to rabbit biocontrol R&D will ensure that Australia is not pushed onto the back foot in managing one of our most costly vertebrate pests,” Mr Glanznig said.

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