BG> At the speed with which the calici virus is spreading,

RS> Its stopped. Not clear why yet. While it got into western NSW very
RS> quickly after it escaped from the island, it hasnt got here yet.

BG> Interesting.  Might need seeding to speed things up a bit then.

So far they have decided not to, mainly to do more testing for any
undesirable effects on the local fauna. There were a couple of odditys
from the NZ testing, a couple of native species developed antibodys
which they should not have done, tho no deaths or anything.

RS> Presumably something to do with insect/fly spread
RS> if it wasnt deliberate human spread from the island
RS> to western NSW and the flinders ranges.

BG> Yeah, it sure spread a hell of a lot more
BG> rapidly than one would normally consider likely.

Yeah, particularly to Broken Hill type regions. The Flinders ranges
could easily have been insects born but the BH is harder to explain.
Corse its also possible its accidentally spread by humans too.

BG> Could well have been human intervention, as you say.

BG> and the rate at which the rabbits are dying, I doubt
BG> they'll be around long enough for the virus to mutate,

RS> The virus doesnt have to mutate, the problem is immunity in the
RS> rabbits. It hasnt completely eliminated rabbits in the flinders
RS> ranges tho it has eliminated something like 90% of the rabbits.

BG> Have these rabbits simply escaped infection, or have they actually
BG> developed some form of immunity already?

RS> No virus ever kills 100%.

BG> True.

BG> or for the rabbits to develop an immunity.

RS> They have already, and they have in europe where it came from too.

BG> Any idea of the time frame involved?

Immediately basically, the ones that didnt die in say the Flinders Ranges.

BG> Mind you, they said much the same thing about
BG> myxomatosis once, and ended up looking pretty silly.

RS> Yep. Tho the detail of spread etc could see a much better result this time.

BG> Whatever happened to the idea of feeding the rabbits
BG> treated grain, which infects them with a virus which makes them
BG> sterile, and passes this sterility to their young genetically?

Thats not possible, you cant alter the genes like that.

Even immunity isnt due to actual changes to the genes, just that
you SELECT, those with the genes which survive better get selected
for and so thats more common in the survivors. The genes dont change.

BG> Or is that what calici is meant to do?

Nope, its just the usual approach of using a virus
with a very high mortality to decimate the population.

It just happened to itself evolve like that in europe etc.
@EOT:

---