MEDIA RELEASE

As the U.S.A dominated Internet rapidly becomes established in Australia, more sites relevent to Australians are being published. This site is one of them.

In 1859 twenty four rabbits were released in Victoria, 136 years later the rabbit is the most widely distributed mammals in Australia, and except for the house mouse, is the most abundant. Rabbits currently cause up to $115,000,000 a year in lost production and continue to cause profound direct and indirect damage to soils and to native plants and animals for which no dollar value can be attached.

When myxomatosis was released in 1950, the rabbit population plumeted to 1% of the peak numbers, however resistance to the virus developed quickly. Although myxomatosis is still controls population numbers, CSIRO are currently researching more effective biological control methods. A CSIRO molecular biotechnology project aims to genetically modified myxoma virus that will render the infected rabbit infertile, a process called immunocontraception. Rabbits are renowned for their amazing capacity to reproduce and for their exponential growth in favourable seasons. A female of 6 months can produce up to 50 kittens a year and $20 million are spent each year in an attempt to control rabbits populations and this is acheived with varying degrees of success. Farmers support the CSIRO studies and are eagerly awaiting the results and the potential release of a biological killer.

Australia has the worlds highest mammal extinction rate in the world, most of these extictions occurred in the period from 1850 when the rabbit arrived and 1910 when the fox arrived. Native flora and fauna species compete with introduced species which have radically altered the environment. This

The creater of the site, Michele Parer, a student at the ANU believes that this new site will be of special interest to people interested in resource management, animal rights and environmental studies.

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