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Myxi in hares


mel b3
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Not seen any Hares with Myxi, not seen any rabbits with Myxi . In fact , not seen any Hares or Rabbits at all , and my perms cover half of North Cheshire .

I have been out this evening for three hours with a night vision camera/range finder , and seen 1 rabbit. (Daresbury).

Very few squashed on the roads either around Warrington.   

I don't shoot Hares , and this time last year there was quite a few .But  Now Zilch.

I used to see many hedgehogs , but now only remains after the badgers have had them (Hedgehogs only predator).

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I am the same , haven't shot Hares for several years now and I cant ever seeing me shooting another healthy one , our countryside would be a poorer place without them and I fear the worst if this dreadful decease take hold .

8 hours ago, redial said:

Stopped shooting Hares some years ago.

Hope this new threat doesn't finish them off.

 

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Haven’t shot hares because they’re are so few around here, however happily recently they are a few more which is nice to see.

I used to shoot a lot of rabbits but almost none to be had for the last 6 years.(Northants)

Article in the paper this morning saying they think it’s jumped species and if you find any hares with Mixy to email

d.bell@uea.ac.uk

 University of East Anglia 

 With the location and if possible a picture of the  infected animal .

Edited by hwr
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If RHD 2 disease is so new.

(I only heard about it a couple of years ago 

However I haven't seen a Rabbit on my permission for a good few years )

How can it go from Southern England to Scotland so quickly?

Just interested?

Edited by mickyh
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18 hours ago, panoma1 said:

Couldn't wait to spit that out! Could she? Bet the antis are rubbing their hands in glee.......and crying crocodile tears for poor old puss!

Hi PM

Could she be coming purely from a scientific angle?

Allowing hares to thrive may ( and I say "may" lightly) enable host parasite co evolution genetic immunity. This very process happens in myxomatosis, the virus has a proportionate mortality rate of about 90%, the remaining 10% evolve adaptive immunity within the dna to the virus. Over time the virus strain is weakened (attenuated) throughout the population allowing for increasing numbers. In rabbits antibodies from infected mothers that have adaptive immunity are passed to newborn rabbits allowing immunity be passed as a genetic element. Some of these newborns will go on to have genetic immunity.

I am fortunate to live in a part of the country that once boasted once of the largest brown hare populations in the uk. I have seen first hand the damage hares can do to crops and as always in areas of over populations they do need to be controlled through management, shooting being widely scientifically accepted as the most humane, effective and safe method.

I have caught hares with all manner of liver and body abscesses but never seen anything that gave symptoms alike to myxoma virus.

I myself have not raised a gun to a hare in 15 years but that is a personal choice.

I  have read a few studies over the years around the pathology of myxomatosis and it is a bloody awful disease. I wonder whether the remark was from a scientific angle ,sure it will be manipulated by a proportion of individuals as you say.

I note in the beeb report it says nothing about other causes of death such as natural road deaths, natural predation etc which came as no surprise as they do cherry pick. I could not see the remark about banning of shooting, am I looking at the correct topic?. I searched for the report but could not find anything, read the beeb one in which she says that she is sure it is myxomatosis and that there are hundreds of reported cases by Defra over the years. Just done a search for Defra reports and could not find anything, she says she is sure that the disease is myxomatosis.

I take her report  on the beeb to be a hypothesis rather than a definitive scientific theory.

As said in the thread need to elaborate on the scientific data already held and further studies carried out.

Find a healthy hare dead, freeze it quickly and send it off.

 

atb

7diaw

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If is has been 60 years since Mixi was introduced to rabbits I doubt that it is Rabbit Mixi that has transferred. More likely a new Virus which has been introduced.

Many landowners want rid of hares because of the problems a large population brings with regard to the unsavoury folk hare coursing.

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The few around Rochford Ashingdon area in Essex seem in normal health, thank goodness. But this is terrible news.

I don't know if it's old wives tales, but I have always been lead to believe that it is "put down" by man and that it will die out as the rabbit population adapts and becomes immune eventually, then man spreads a new dose in areas where rabbits become a pest again. But to jump a species' is very new and awful. Image fields without hares, if they were to become extinct. I've seen and loved watching hares all my life and something like this allows us to feel a little of what people in other parts of the world have and are feeling, with the ever increasing list of endangered animals. Very sad.

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On 13/10/2018 at 20:25, JohnfromUK said:

Indeed I do - but I also wanted to highlight the risks of all interventions with disease, predators etc.

I looked up the clearance programme I mentioned.  It ran from 1958 to 1971 as local 'rabbit clearance societies'.  They got a 50% subsidy 'on costs' whatever that means.

Was shooting on my mates farm during that period and used beige Pest Control carts which were issued free or very cheap,in fact might still have one somewhere.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

We as a species have a lot to answer for.

I am not some sort of eco-warrior, but when I look at what humans have done to the earth it saddens me, what the future holds for young children of today and those yet born I hate to think…..https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds

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6 minutes ago, old'un said:

We as a species have a lot to answer for.

I am not some sort of eco-warrior, but when I look at what humans have done to the earth it saddens me, what the future holds for young children of today and those yet born I hate to think…..https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/30/humanity-wiped-out-animals-since-1970-major-report-finds

???????????????????

I'd like to see the list of the 60% we have allegedly wiped out!

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7 minutes ago, old'un said:

Think that’s 60% of animal populations/numbers, not 60% of species being made extinct.

:hmm:Statistics can be made to say whatever you like, but I remain seriously skeptical about anyone quoting figures of this magnitude.  It needs to be qualified FAR better, and it certainly doesn't relate to rabbits and Deer in this country, the population of both of them is much higher now than in 1970!

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20 minutes ago, Dekers said:

:hmm:Statistics can be made to say whatever you like, but I remain seriously skeptical about anyone quoting figures of this magnitude.  It needs to be qualified FAR better, and it certainly doesn't relate to rabbits and Deer in this country, the population of both of them is much higher now than in 1970!

I agree that statistics can be made to say what you like but this is a report carried out by dozens of independent scientists throughout the world. 

Even if the report is grossly exagerrated , it still makes terrifying reading. Humans have, and continue too, screw up this world. Discounting important surveys or statistics because there are more 'rabbits or deer now' is incredibly naive and a dangerous attitude. These 2 species, as others, may be doing locally well, but its the species that we don't always see that are suffering.

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1 minute ago, stuartyboy said:

I agree that statistics can be made to say what you like but this is a report carried out by dozens of independent scientists throughout the world. 

Even if the report is grossly exagerrated , it still makes terrifying reading. Humans have, and continue too, screw up this world. Discounting important surveys or statistics because there are more 'rabbits or deer now' is incredibly naive and a dangerous attitude. These 2 species, as others, may be doing locally well, but its the species that we don't always see that are suffering.

How do you know?  Which species?

Please read my post again, I didn't dismiss anything, I said ……….  It needs to be qualified FAR better.

That is an incredibly vague media report which actually says nothing of substance!

Unlike some I don't accept unqualified statistics whoever may have invented them!

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The report gathers info from more than 4000 species and 17000 population groups. I would class this as a better statistic than observing local deer and rabbit population groups. 

The report also states that populations of water based organisms are down by 83%.

Regardless of whether this report is accurate, and I'm happy to take it on face value, the increase in human population is taking its toll. Our population has doubled in the last 50 years and its having an adverse affect.

I would like to class myself as caring about the environment that my kids are going to inherit. I don't think this makes me a tree hugger, in fact I'm happy to control vermin species for conservation reasons. 

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2 minutes ago, stuartyboy said:

The report gathers info from more than 4000 species and 17000 population groups. I would class this as a better statistic than observing local deer and rabbit population groups. 

The report also states that populations of water based organisms are down by 83%.

Regardless of whether this report is accurate, and I'm happy to take it on face value, the increase in human population is taking its toll. Our population has doubled in the last 50 years and its having an adverse affect.

I would like to class myself as caring about the environment that my kids are going to inherit. I don't think this makes me a tree hugger, in fact I'm happy to control vermin species for conservation reasons. 

So how does the 83% reduction of what is likely to be MILLIONS of water based organisms relate to the whole picture?

That could mean a 1% reduction in everything else, and even a gain in many things, and give a 60% reduction overall which is a senseless statistic.

In 1970 there were probably millions of the Measles bacteria in the world, now there are very few, is that such a bad thing!?

I absolutely accept mankind sticks their finger in far to much and commonly messes things up, but lets not get carried away with a media report!

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21 minutes ago, old'un said:

African Elephant numbers at the being of the 20th century were around 4.5 million, today there are approximately 450 thousand left, fact.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1169590/With-rabbit-population-45m-Britain-threat--The-Great-Bunny-Plague.html

And rabbit in the UK have increased far more than the decline in elephants, so pitting those 2 against each other gives a net GAIN in wildlife!!!!!!

I am not for one second trying to justify mankinds often disgraceful treatment of many species, but the above figures just show what you can do with statistics!

Edited by Dekers
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