In the 1950s, Australian sheep and cattle farmers decided to tackle the country’s rabbit problem by unleashing a biological weapon—the myxoma virus. This poxvirus causes only mild symptoms in its natural hosts, the cottontail rabbits, but is usually fatal on European rabbits abundant in Australia. The introduction of the virus dramatically reduced Australia’s rabbit population, resulting in a rapid economic recovery for the wool and meat industries, generating millions of dollars within two years. Unfortunately, efforts to implement similar biological measures in Europe ended in a catastrophe.
Rabbits around a waterhole at the myxomatosis trial enclosure on Wardang Island in 1938. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
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