00:00We have been successful at getting those numbers down, but that is relied, as you mentioned
00:06on those biocontrols, myxomatosis and calicivirus then introduced in the 90s.
00:12So the numbers seem huge, but where they were, it was a whole lot bigger and a whole lot
00:18greater impact.
00:19And our concern really is that now, as we start to see less efficacy from that calicivirus
00:25that was released about 10 years ago in the early 2010s, that we're going to start to
00:30see real booms in the numbers of rabbits, particularly on the eastern seaboard where
00:34there's been a couple of very good years in terms of seasonal conditions.
00:37All right.
00:38Explain that to me then.
00:39These viruses were introduced to control the numbers.
00:43Why are they not still working?
00:47So with any virus, I mean, that original myxomatosis virus released in the 1950s had about 99%
00:54reduction in the rabbit population, but then rabbits breed very, very fast.
00:58You have to take out about 90% every year just to keep the population stable.
01:03So the numbers started to grow, grow back as the ones that survived were the ones that
01:07had that resistance to the virus.
01:09So then the CSIRO did a huge amount of work to develop a new effective virus.
01:14And that calicivirus was released in 1995, despite a whole heap of campaigning from the
01:20rabbit meat and fur trade in the 1980s to stop it happening.
01:24And again, there was a knockdown of about 98% of the rabbit population.
01:28But as you know, we know with things like other viruses, with flus that might have been
01:35huge human pandemics a few hundred years ago and now just cause a sniffle, the rabbits
01:40that survive are the rabbits that were able to, had some resistance to that virus.
01:46And over a period of about 10 years with these new viruses, it finds that while it continues
01:50to have some suppressant effect, it doesn't hold the population in check.
01:55And that's why people across Australia are starting to see rabbits in places that they
01:59probably haven't seen them for a number of decades.
02:01So Jack, is other scientists working on another virus?
02:07There's some ad hoc work going on, certainly within CSIRO and within some of our universities.
02:13But the concern that we have is that in 2022, funding for what's called the National Rabbit
02:18Biocontrol Pipeline, it ended and there was no commitment to ongoing funding.
02:25And so right now there is no coordinated national science effort to develop that next biocontrol
02:31tool for rabbits in terms of a virus.
02:34And that means that we are relying on maybe a bit of luck, but not much strategy when
02:39it comes to actually dealing with one of the greatest threats to our agriculture, but also
02:43our environment.
02:44Because let's remember, in terms of species on the brink of extinction, over 300 species
02:50on the brink of extinction are directly threatened by rabbits.
02:54This is a serious environmental pest.
02:56And without that funding, we're concerned that we're going to see numbers escalate.
03:00And that's a real blind spot from the Albanese government that needs to be fixed.
03:03Jack, you just made the case for it, but there will be people that say, leave the bunnies
03:07alone.
03:08What's the problem?
03:11Look, unfortunately, no one likes to see animals killed.
03:15The sad reality is that we have choices to make in Australia.
03:18And that's the choice between urgently and effectively and humanely reducing the numbers
03:23of some of our invasive species, whether that's rabbits or feral deer or foxes, or seeing
03:28some of our native species go extinct.
03:30So this is a choice that we have to make.
03:32We also know that the impact of rabbits on agriculture is immense.
03:36About $200 million cost every year with just the numbers at the level they are at the moment.
03:42So this is an enormous cost to agriculture.
03:45And in terms of our environment, they eat down native plants, they stop regenerating,
03:49they overgraze and mean that some of our native animals don't actually have food sources.
03:54So rabbits are an enormous threat to our native wildlife and actually in terms of number of
04:00species, and this surprises a lot of people, are a bigger threat in terms of extinctions
04:05than cats or foxes or even altered fire regimes.
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