The RCD research programme
Research on RCD in Australia began in 1991 as a three-year programme funded jointly by Australia and New Zealand. The programme budget was approximately A$750,000 with New Zealand’s contribution about NZ$300,000.
Initially the research, which was based at the CSIRO1 Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL) at Geelong, concentrated on developing tests for detecting the virus, testing humaneness, and checking on host specificity and spread under laboratory conditions.
Under laboratory conditions, a gap of 50 cm between cages, in the same airspace, was sufficient to prevent virus transmission between rabbits.
The species which have been tested for susceptibility to the virus are:
- domestic animals — horses, cattle, sheep, deer, goats, pigs, dogs, cats and fowls;
- feral animals — foxes, hares, ferrets, rats and mice;
- Australian native animals — bush rats, spinifex hopping mice, plains rats, fat-tailed dunnarts, northern brown bandicoots, brush-tailed bettongs, tammar wallabies and brush-tailed possums;
- Australian birds — long-billed corellas, feral pigeons, silver gulls, brown falcons and emus;
- reptiles — common blue-tongue lizards; and
- New Zealand native species — North Island brown kiwi and short-tailed bats.
Contact for Enquiries
Manager, Strategic Science Team
MAF Biosecurity New Zealand
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0115
Fax: +64 4 894 0731
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