Pet rabbits victims of killer virus

RABBIT owners in northern Tasmania are seeing the deadly effects of a virus strain — with no vaccine available in Australia.

St Leonards rabbit breeder of 22 years, Mandy Kidd, has been warning Tasmanians not to buy rabbits or secondhand hutches.

Eight generations of her rabbits, including Plush Lops, Dwarf Lops and Angoras, have died over the past two years from the sudden and violent killer known as rabbit calicivirus — or RHDV2.

Ms Kidd stop breeding rabbits in 2018 after 21 of her bunnies under seven weeks old died suddenly, and she realised something was “terribly wrong”.

She said the death of her rabbits has been “constant” since April this year, and the virus was spreading through northern Tasmania.

Known locally for her rabbit breeding expertise, Ms Kidd said she had recently received messages from people asking what was wrong with their pets.

The messages have come from Ravenswood, Mayfield, Newnham, Prospect, West Launceston, Hadspen, George Town, Lilydale and Turners Marsh.

“They send me videos and say ‘what’s wrong with it?’ and I say ‘for God’s sake, get it away from your children. They cannot witness what it does’,” she said.

“It’s a really violent death, mainly.

“It’s unusual just finding them lying down as if they’ve gone to sleep.”

Ms Kidd has only three rabbits left, and wakes up anxious each day that another “special” pet will have died.

RHDV2 was first found in wild rabbits in the ACT in 2015. It can be transmitted on surfaces, by flies or by direct contact, and it affects both wild and pet rabbits.

Information published by the Australian Veterinary Association said the impact of RHDV2 on pet rabbits and rabbit farms was high, and could cause death in young kittens.

It said development of a vaccine specific for RHDV2 was under way with “excellent progress to date”, but it was “not possible” to provide an estimate of when the vaccine would be available to the public.

Ms Kidd said rabbit owners were told a vaccine was in the making four years ago, “but it keeps getting put off”.

“I’d say it’s going to be too late for me,” she said.