THERE appears to be a gradual resurgence in rabbit populations in the Coorong area, according to Biosecurity SA's natural resource management-biosecurity senior research officer Greg Mutze.In many sites where rabbit numbers had been low for 10 years there was substantial recovery during the past five years. The trend was widely reported in arid and semi-arid Australia.
Evidence from studies on wild rabbits collected from 10 sites stretching from South Australia to Queensland indicated that rabbits at many places had developed some level of genetic resistance to rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus.
Current research seeks to determine whether the virus itself has weakened or if it is co-evolving with rabbits to maintain virulence.
from here.
No comments:
Post a Comment