Jump to content

Myxomatosis


deadeye ive
 Share

Recommended Posts

This year has been a bumper harvast for Rabbits on my shoots..............Particulary the Golf course.

 

Last Night at the Golf Club:( .............I ONLY saw 4 Rabbits and shot 2 of which one was scarred with MYXY :< .........

 

Apparently one theory is that during a population explosion the young re-visit the old burrows where the Flea carrying this dreadful disease habitates and so the cycle of an epidemic proceeds.

 

OR IS IT BEING PUT DOWN ILLEGALLY. :<

 

Hows thing in your areas chaps ?? :thumbs:

And what time period does it take roughly for numbers to recover in your areas.

 

 

Ive

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

You can eat a rabbit with mixy in the sense that it isn't harmful to humans. however I don't think I would like to. I wouldn't give it to the dogs either. I remember them telling us that BSE wouldn't affect humans or dogs until it was too late.

 

Actually mixy doesn't kill a rabbit. At least not outright. the rabbit dies a slow death out in the cold and wet or gets taken by a fox or attacked by crows. They wander away from their burrows and can't find their way back. I hadn't heard the thing about foxes ignoring a rabbit with mixy, in my experience a fox will take anything. We used to shoot the rabbits inthe back of the head with an air rifle and dump them in a hedge but they had usually gone by the next day. It may well be that in a bad epidemic there are just so many rabbits around that the fox can't eat them all.

 

You often see rabbits with mixy out in the rain soaking wet and starving because it can't find food or is too ill to eat. Once the weather gets colder and wetter they will die in droves.

 

Many rabbits do recover though and you will see rabbits with scarring round their eyes but otherwise healthy once the epidemic has passed. it seems to return to an area every three years or so

Edited by Vince Green
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Lets put it this way, a fox will go past a mixy rabbit and turn it down.

 

Not quite true, the fox will leave the head as this is where the disease centres.

i've shot hundreds of rabbits this summer and left half of them for foxes,

when i've returned there's usually quite a few heads left here and there.

you can eat the meat, just leave the head as mixy is a neurological disease i'd bone the rabbit aswell.

the reason you see lots of mixy rabbits around is cos their brains are stewed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...