Illegal release threat to virus
The biggest risk to the potential release of a new strain of a rabbit haemorrhagic disease is an illegal release, says South Canterbury high country chairman for Federated Farmers Andrew Simpson.
‘‘The biggest risk we have is an illegal importation of the virus because this won’t be a clean virus.
‘‘If we get a compromised virus coming in we cannot guarantee what sort of job it is going to do,’’ Simpson said.
The new strain was expected to boost the effects of the existing RHDV1 strain and help slow the increase in wild rabbit numbers, said Simpson at the Federated Farmers High Country Conference in Hanmer Springs.
High country farmers were working closely with Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI), Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) and the regional councils on the release of the new K5 variant, he said.
‘‘Federated Farmers submitted a comprehensive application to MPI which it then sat on for three months.
‘‘It was sent back to us and we had to alter the application.
‘‘The alteration was 900 pages,’’ Simpson said.
‘‘At the moment we have Hazardous Substances and New Organisms and Environment Protection Authority clearance.
‘‘The RHDV1K5 virus has been released in Australia and they were expecting it to bowl over 20 per cent more rabbits than the old virus.
‘‘It is currently knocking over about 42 per cent so it is achieving a lot higher rates than originally anticipated.’’
There was a lot of public concern about the vaccine which Federated Farmers was trying to allay, Simpson said.
The existing vaccine worked perfectly well for the new virus, but there was no known vaccine for the RCVD2 strain which was also in Australia.
‘‘We don’t want that one out here because it is a very problematic strain that rabbits get highly resistant to over time,’’ Simpson said.
The time frame for the release has been revised due to holdups and is now set for May.
Simpson said he was hoping for clearance to bring the virus into the country in September with Environment Canterbury to hold it through the intervening period.
‘‘But it is important we have an organised release strategy and we are hoping to have release sites every 20 kilometres throughout the South Island.
‘‘If we can remove the old virus it means we can reintroduce it again at a later stage.’’
A controlled release will ensure that a high-quality commercially prepared product can be made available in order to improve effectiveness.
‘‘Just be patient, that’s what Im asking every one to do and leave it up to us.
‘‘If we do it we will have the best chance of success.’’
South Canterbury Federated Farmers chairman Mark Adams said he was in support of the virus if all the ‘‘checks and balances’’ were put in place.
‘‘Rabbits are insidious, they can be very destructive,’’ he said.
‘‘They pose a threat to farmers livelihoods.
‘‘They undermine soil structure through burrowing and don’t allow the regeneration of plant life.’’
The New Zealand Rabbit Coordination Group is co-ordinating the approvals processes for RHDV1 K5.
The group includes representatives from regional and district councils, Federated Farmers, the Department of Conservation, MPI and LINZ.