Hares at risk of being wiped out by rabbit disease

HARES are in danger of being wiped out in the UK, experts have warned, after a spate of deaths prompted fears that a highly infectious disease has “jumped” from rabbits.

If rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD2) or myxomatosis were to spread to non-resistant hares for the first time, the animals could be eradicated in a couple of years, warned David Wembridge, survey officer at the People’s Trust for Endangered Species.

Myxomatosis first reached the UK in 1953 after it was introduced as a control measure in Kent, but inadvertently resulted in the deaths of 99 per cent of the rabbit population in three years.

There are renewed fears that the potentially fatal viral disease caused by blood-sucking insects is behind the mysterious surge in deaths of hares in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Hares, which are larger than rabbits and have longer hind legs, are also at risk from RHD2, a haemorrhagic disease that is difficult to diagnose.

Mr Wembridge said: “It is not thought that hunting has a big effect on the population, but the hare population is not so robust that it would be able to take a really big loss in numbers – the disease in rabbits nearly wiped out their population. Until resistance spread in rabbits it had a major impact.

“If a contagious disease agent has spread to hares for the first time then they will not have any resistance, and it could be that a very large proportion – over 90 per cent – of the population will be killed. The rabbits were gone in a matter of a couple of years.”

A sharp rise in sightings of sick or dead hares by landowners and farmers has added to concerns over the future of the species in the east of England.

Many of these sightings were around Bungay, Suffolk, and on one occasion six hares were found dead in a field.

Dr Diana Bell, senior lecturer of biological sciences at the University of East Anglia, said the disease had been “particularly virulent” in rabbits this autumn.

“We need to know what is happening. East Anglia is a stronghold for brown hares so it would be disastrous if we lost them,” she said. The trust estimates that there are about 817,500 hares left in the UK, but their numbers are declining.