yankeedoodlepigeon Posted September 21, 2011 Report Share Posted September 21, 2011 Hi. Heard a rabbit has got mixi at the farm. How long before it takes over? Can anything be done to rid it? Not seen it in all the years I have been going up to the farm must be 8 years. I have heard it never goes once it takes hold. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mad1 Posted September 21, 2011 Report Share Posted September 21, 2011 Yeah get rid of it soon as poss and burn it .... To be honest if you have seen one with it there will be plenty more have it and die than you will see On my permission there are 7 warrens around the outer edges over the past 3 month or so I have seen it moving on to the next one down Now it's just damage limitation but the farmers don't complain it's getting rid of them. But it is a terrible manmade diease Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garden gun Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Mixi itself is not "man made" it is a natural virus spread mainly by biting insects. It was rife in continental Europe and was deliberately introduced some 60 yeras ago as a rabbit population control measure. The same was done in Oz to control the rabbits there. About 10% of wild bunnies survive/are immune. Once you have a strain of mixi proof bunnies - nuff said. Agree a mixi bunny is not a pleasant sight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grandalf Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 It never goes away - It is just worse sometimes - Usually spring and autumn. There is a vaccine available. Maybe the bunnie huggers would like to take that up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeds chimp Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 hardly seen any since May but its come back now...out of 5 shot last night 3 had it really bad and 1 had the signs of it...in the hedge they went for foxy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 seems to have reared it's ugly head on one of my farms... only seen 1 rabbit so far though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gunner Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 I shoot in Essex & on my permission there are tons of rabbits,the last few times my father in law & I have been out there was not even a 1/4 of the usual amount around & the few we did shoot were all mixi ! This is the first time my father in law has seen it on this permission,his been shooting this particular land the last 15 years ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted September 22, 2011 Report Share Posted September 22, 2011 Hi. Heard a rabbit has got mixi at the farm. How long before it takes over? Can anything be done to rid it? Not seen it in all the years I have been going up to the farm must be 8 years. I have heard it never goes once it takes hold. Thanks Nothing you or I can do to get rid of it, from infection to death is 14 days max, usually 10-12 days (if the fox didn't get it first!) It will sweep through and go, the rabbit population will do what it can to recover until it turns up yet again. Mixxy is out there and it has been out there a long time, and WILL be out there for MANY years to come, if anyone hasn't seen it then be grateful, your time will come! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justintime Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 Myxomatosis is caused by a virus first seen in laboratory rabbits in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1896. It was tolerated by South American strains of rabbit, but was almost invariably lethal to their European cousins. Farmers spread it as well to kill the bunnies off what they spread is a mistary as there is no record i can find but it looks like it was refined by man to eradicate rabbits Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 Its passed via bites from fleas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pegasus bridge Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 the land i shoot on has had it for the last couple of years in early summer, and again around now - but i dont think it kills anywhere near 90% - as a guess i would say 30-40% if that - i have shot dozens of rabbits this year with evident scarring around the eyes and nose, these rabbits have (apart from the scars) been in very good health - they must be increasing immunity - which i presume is being passed onto the offspring? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justintime Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 Its passed via bites from fleas Yes it is the information posted is from the history of how mixi came about cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rimfire4969 Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 Down here we have 1000's of rabbits on my land and mixy seems to appear now and then. It makes no real differance to the rabbit numbers. I do shoot quite a few rabbits with scarring which i believe to be surviors from mixy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beardo Posted September 23, 2011 Report Share Posted September 23, 2011 bit of digging came up with this... Where did myxomatosis come from? Originally, myxomatosis was imported from Brazil (where it was first discovered in the 1930's) to Australia in 1950.this was to control the massive populations of rabbits in that sub-continent. In Brazil, the cotton Tailed rabbit (Sylvilagus) is affected by the disease to a minor degree as only tiny lumps are produced by this self-limiting disease. However, in Australia the disease was devastating and markedly reduced the rabbit population. How did the disease get to Britain? The disease was transmitted from Australia by a French Physician, doctor A Delille, who wished to control the rabbit population on his country estate near Paris. The disease rapidly spread into the wild population in France and then was brought, entirely by accident, from France in 1953. There is no evidence that the disease was intentionally brought into Britain but there is no doubt that some farmers moved the disease around using diseased rabbits to control the population of the rabbits locally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu74 Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 Just been on my permission for the first time, i got it in may, when i was up there in may all the rabbits were healthy and running around was up there last night with mad1 and there was just laods of dead rabbits around killed by mixi,and more dead ones when we had finished, it is a horrible disease, but you can apparentely still eat rabbits with mixi although i definately would not. :yp: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 Just been on my permission for the first time, i got it in may, when i was up there in may all the rabbits were healthy and running around was up there last night with mad1 and there was just laods of dead rabbits around killed by mixi,and more dead ones when we had finished, it is a horrible disease, but you can apparentely still eat rabbits with mixi although i definately would not. :yp: We are nearly in October?!?!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wharf Rat Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 Two weeks ago I hadn't seen a mixi rabbit for years. Last Friday I went out and found my regular haunt infested. Ran out of carts in about twenty minutes, shooting the ones who didn't run as they had their eyes sealed up(estimated 25 -35). Damn shame. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crosshair Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 Most of the information on here regarding myxie is correct. It is a form of syphylis transmitted by the flea. As for running out of cartridges shooting them, well when it was rampant in the 1950s it was advised to leave them, the reasoning being that the one's that survived would pass on the resistance to their offspring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wymberley Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 When it's really hot or cold, the rabbit will go underground to cool off/warm up which is why we often get two seasonal outbreaks as the fleas are waiting in the burrows. We used to shoot on a satellite airfield in the north of Scotland and in the hot summer of '76 I popped in to check on something while on the way to the beach with the family. Hadn't been stopped for more than a minute or two when the wife said that she and the kids were feeling sick and could we go. She had a point, the stench from the "casualties", the numbers being in the hundreds - Watership Down didn't come close to Milltown - was horrendous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dekers Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 Most of the information on here regarding myxie is correct. It is a form of syphylis transmitted by the flea. As for running out of cartridges shooting them, well when it was rampant in the 1950s it was advised to leave them, the reasoning being that the one's that survived would pass on the resistance to their offspring. In the 50's the farming community were MORE than happy to see the back of the rabbit, foodstuffs and production were at a massive premium as we were still suffering big time from the effects of WW2, so who wanted to leave them?!?! Doesn't seem to have worked anyway does it, nearly 60 years on Mixxy is still doing the rounds, how many hundreds of years do you think before this practice will result in a totally Mixxy resistant rabbit population! ATB! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustJon Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 And in the next 50 years food will be even more valuable then after the war... watch that price of bread Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crosshair Posted September 24, 2011 Report Share Posted September 24, 2011 It was illegal to spread myxie after only about two years of it being introduced into the country. Personally it was so virulant there was no need to spread it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frenchieboy Posted September 25, 2011 Report Share Posted September 25, 2011 And in the next 50 years food will be even more valuable then after the war... watch that price of bread Totally agree, but might this attract more people back to eating rabbits! - After all many years ago rabbit was sometimes known as the poor mans chicken, it might do us rabbit shooters a bit of good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yankeedoodlepigeon Posted September 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2011 I just went out to the shoot for a nosey. Got one rabbit and it had mixi. Didn't really seem like they were in the out in the large numbers as normal. Its nice to keep the freezer well stocked so I hope it won't wipe them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrRoberts Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 If your to kill a rabbit for the pot and not knowing that its got mixi (its just got it) is there any health issues for humans?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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