Rabbit control with myxoma virus
Control de conejos con el virus de la mixomatosis
- Date
- 1950-1953 · confidence high
- Place
- Murray Valley, New South Wales and Victoria, Australia
- Credited to
- Frank Fenner and CSIRO
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
In 1950 the myxoma virus was released in the Murray Valley, and within months it killed tens of millions of European rabbits that were devastating the pastures. It was the first mass use of a virus to control a vertebrate pest.
Rabbit populations developed resistance and the virus attenuated within a few years; the rabbit haemorrhagic disease calicivirus is a second agent today. It was released illegally in France in 1952.
What it led to
- Fenner's studies of virus-host coevolution
- spread of the virus in Europe from 1952 with consequences for Iberian ecology
- debate on the ethics and risks of biological warfare