Australian rabbits need your urgent help. **************************************** According to a recent newspaper article (see below) the Australian National Registration Authority (NRA) may have decided not to allow the legalisation of baits coated with deadly rabbit haemorrhagic disease of rabbits (renamed RCD in Australia to be less emotive). Some state agriculturalists and vested interests (those who want to make money out of further research into rabbit killing and bait manufacture etc) want the deadly RCD coated baits approved. They will try to pressure the NRA to change their decision which may not be final as yet. The NRA is part of the department of the Primary Industry And Energy Minister of Australia. To be truly independent, the NRA should be a statutory stand alone body (not subject to pressures from the Department of Agriculture and farmers). Please fax or email the NRA and tell them that they should NOT legalise deadly RCD/RHD coated baits under any circumstances. There is obviously a problem with the RCD deadly injectible live virus (it doesn't work properly) and therefore this "product" should also be de-registered. Rabbit Information Service (http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm) has much information on RCD and why we should not allow the deliberate spread of RCD in Australia. Some points to remember are - 4 out of 5 major calicivirus groups already infect humans and there is no reason to believe RHD/RCD will remain species specific to European rabbits over time. -there was never a proper Environmental Impact Statement undertaken by independent biologists/environmentalists re RCD and latest Australian reports have shown a drastic decline in breeding pairs of Wedge-tailed Eagles in some parts of Australia -Anecdotal evidence of wildlife carers from several states has sugested that some Australian native animals have died alongside the RCD infected rabbits at the times when RCD virus has been deliberately spread -A recent study of human health available at the CDC website Atlanta , USA has shown a correlation between illness in Australian humans and the spread of RCD (Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume 4 Number 1 January - March 1998 ,Perspectives , Calicivirus Emergence from Ocean Reservoirs:� Zoonotic and Interspecies Movements Alvin W. Smith,* Douglas E. Skilling,* Neil Cherry,� Jay H. Mead,� and David O. Matson� - see Internet address- http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol4no1/smith.htm) Please fax your support of a "NO" decision to RCD baits by the NRA (Australia) to To: The Chief Executive Officer, National Registration Authority, P.O. Box E240, ACT 2604 Fax +61 2 6272.5249 or email the To: The Chief Executive Officer, National Registration Authority, P.O. Box E240, ACT 2604 care of: Juanita de Silva, NRA, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Graham Savage, NRA, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mary Barr, NRA [EMAIL PROTECTED] Call for bait use to cull rabbits ********************************* The Mercury (HOBART-TASMANIA) Tuesday 1st September 1998 By Georgia Warner Tasmania wants to trial calicivirus baits as concern grows that the initial culling program is not having a major impact on rabbit numbers. Tasmania, Queensland and New South Wales are leading the push for the National Registration Authority to overturn a ban on bait-releases for the virus. They want to begin testing the new method as early as December. When the calicivirus was officially introduced into Tasmania in April last year, it was injected into rabbits in the hope that they would spread the disease. Some predictions said culls of 95% could occur if the virus took hold. But almost 18 months on, Tasmanian calicivirus program co-ordinator Mick Statham said the state's climate, terrain and logistical problems of injecting rabbits had led to a disappointing result. "Rabbit numbers in Tasmania are currently in the hundreds of thousands and I would guess the disease has spread to less than 10% of the state," Dr Statham said. "The problem is not that the disease isn't working; just that we are having problems making it spread in Tasmania." Ideal breeding conditions for rabbits over the past two years - thanks to unusually dry winters - have hampered efforts. Dr Statham believes predators also have been feeding off the carcasses of infected rabbits, preventing bush flies from spreading the disease. Another explanation could be rabbits were not mixing with other rabbits after being handled by people who injected them with disease. But a further problem - which the use of baits would overcome - has been the sheer impracticality of injecting rabbits en masse. "We spent three hours out at South Arm trying to infect rabbits last year and only caught 12," Dr Statham said. He urged anyone who noticed rabbits that appeared to have died abnormally, possibly as a result of the calicivirus, to contact him so the spread could be monitored. Dr Statham can be contacted on 6336.5339. 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