The epidemiology of myxomatosis in the Australian wild rabbit

Abstract

The epidemiology of an infectious disease is usually studied so that remedial or preventive measures can be applied at the most accessible phase of the parasite’s life cycle. Once these measures are applied, the relationship between host and parasite is immediately modified, so that normally it is impossible to follow the evolution of a disease under natural conditions for any length of time. When myxomatosis became established in the Australian wild rabbit five years ago, the economic value of the disease became apparent almost immediately. A far less publicised aspect is the unique opportunity afforded the epidemiologist to study the mutual interaction of animal-host and virus-parasite under natural conditions. It is not the first time that a virus disease has been spread deliberately in a susceptible population; smallpox was used in this way during the subjugation of the American Indian and probably other native communities (200), but the present widespread epizootics of myxomatosis are providing the first opportunity to employ modern methods of epidemiological research to trace out the natural history of a disease without the complication of attempts to protect the host. In Australia the only interference to the natural evolution of host-parasite relationship has been the repeated introduction of virulent myxoma virus. This thesis presents and laboratory observations of the behaviour of the disease, and the response by the host, during the first five years of myxomatosis in Australia. Show more