Amongst over $400 million of environmental projects announced yesterday by the Australian Government was one for $1.5 million for our CRC to conduct a project called RHDV Boost. The proposal was pulled together by the CRC's Chief Operating Officer, Andreas Glanznig with rabbit research leader Brian Cooke and a suite of collaborators from NSW DPI, CSIRO, South Australia and others. In fact, to carry out the project successfully, our virologists will work with collaborators in Italy, France, Spain, Germany and the USA.
We know that the imported Czech strain of rabbit haemorrhagic disease released in Australia in 1996 is waning in its impact. In additional, CSIRO has found an "Australian" strain that probably came with the rabbits in 1859 - it doesn't make animals sick, but it might immunize some against the exotic strain.
We also know that over three dozen strains of the virus have now been identified around the world, and these seem to be keeping rabbit numbers low in Europe. We intend investigating the possibility of improving biological control of rabbits by supplementing the current field strains in Australia with new strains. Release would be five years away at best, but it may help us save native vegetation that gets a hammering from rabbits. We are grateful to be given this important opportunity.
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