Rod, at 10:24 on May 17 1996, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

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.

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

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

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

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

RS> No virus ever kills 100%.

True.

BG> or for the rabbits to develop an immunity.

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

Any idea of the time frame involved?

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.

Whatever happened to the idea of feeding the rabbits treated grain, which
infects them with a virus which makes them sterile, and passes this
sterility to their young genetically?  Or is that what calici is meant to
do?  We don't officially have rabbits up here, so useful data is hard to
come by.

Regards, Bill

--- Msgedsq/2 3.20