In this section of my reading, there was a passage about a young man Thomas Austin who released 24 imported rabbits from England into the Australian wild in 1859. The passage describes how the rabbits eventually ruined the land and livestock, since there was no predator of a rabbit, the species multiplied rapidly. Until, a virus, myxomatosis was introduced to Austrailia.
" The weapon deployed against teh rabbits was a miracle virus from South America called myxomatosis. Harmless to humans and other animals, it was phenomenally devastating to rabbits, with a mortality rate of 99.9 percent....It took a while for things to get rolling, but today Australia's rabbit numbers are back up to 300 million and climbing fast." (Bryson 112).
I was intersted in this virus and decided to research it and find out what made it so deadly to rabbits. This link provides information about the virus and how it is spread, as well as symptoms of the virus.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=18+1803&aid=3422
No comments:
Post a Comment