In the early days of the settlement of Australia, enterprising settlers unwisely introduced the
European rabbit. This rabbit had no natural enemies in the Antipodes, so that it multiplied with
that promiscuous abandon characteristic of rabbits. It overran a whole continent. It caused
devastation by burrowing and by devouring the herbage which might have maintained millions of
sheep and cattle. Scientists discovered that this particular variety of rabbit (and apparently no
other animal) was susceptible to a fatal virus disease, myxomatosis. By infecting animals and
letting them loose in the burrows, local epidemics of this disease could be created. Later it was
found that there was a type of mosquito which acted as the carrier of this disease and passed it on
to the rabbits. So while the rest of the world was trying to get rid of mosquitoes, Australia was
encouraging this one. It effectively spread the disease all over the continent and drastically
reduced the rabbit population. It later became apparent that rabbits were developing a degree of
resistance to this disease, so that the rabbit population was unlikely to be completely
exterminated. There were hopes, however, that the problem of the rabbit would become manageable.
Ironically, Europe, which had bequeathed the rabbit as a pest to Australia, acquired this man-
made disease as a pestilence. A French physician decided to get rid of the wild rabbits on his own
estate and introduced myxomatosis. It did not, however, remain within the confines of his estate.
It spread through France, Where wild rabbits are not generally regarded as a pest but as sport
and a useful food supply, and it spread to Britain where wild rabbits are regarded as a pest but
where domesticated rabbits, equally susceptible to the disease, are the basis of a profitable fur
industry.
The question became one of whether Man could control the disease he had invented.