How fast does Myxy work ?

[Gary C]

Going round a shoot the other night there was little rabbit life where there had previously been dozens to hundreds. We had seen the 1st signs of myxy about a month ago.

It's almost like when the wet came in they all went down, caught it, died (and obviously never seen again)

I shot one in a far flung corner which had scars under it's eyes. Looked as though it had recovered.

At a guess I would say myxy has decimated the land in 6 weeks and only a few survivors remain.

Does this seem a likely scenario ?

[Shed tuner]

Originally posted by Gary C

Does this seem a likely scenario ?

'fraid so - happened on one of my shoots last year, probably 1 month from heaving to deserted

[Baldie]

Was out last night looking at somewhere I'd hope to get permission to shoot. Place had previously been 'heaving' with bunnies.

One last night. And Mr and Mrs Plod (looking to find out what I was doing there).

Had VERY friendly chat (honest) and SHE was telling me about another area further up the road that was the same. Lots then none.

Didn't have the 'balls' to ask them what they were doing in such a desolate place.....

[Nutty_Squirrel]

Myxy requires roughly 20 days to kill a rabbit.
If you have a myxy problem then only shoot those infected and chances are the others have built up an immunity to the disease which they then pass on to their offspring.

[dazzpol]

I descovered mixy on part of my shoot (it's divided into four large areas) about 3 months ago, within two weeks of finding it the population was decimated. Last month I went lamping on the off chance and the population seems to be on the rise again, lots of shot rabbits were exhibiting signs of recovery, ie, scarring around the eyes and mouth.

Dazz

[stevew71]

From infection to dead is less than a week, usually has worse impact in bad weather as the rabbits stay underground and the fleas that carry it spread very rapidly with a captive audience. You've probably noticed that after a few weeks of bad weather the rabbits' ears can be caked in fleas, yet during the summer months (if we have a summer) despite more rabbits they are fairly flea free, it's because they spend a lot more time above ground putting on the fat for winter and don't spend so much time cooped up together. Look at how fast human dieseases spread in confined areas, same principle.

[Gary C]

Incubation period of the disease 7 to 21 days
Death usually withing 14 days of symptoms
Spread by parasites. Fleas and mossies. They can survive for several months in an empty burrow.
Mortality rate of the serious strain in unexposed rabbits is 90%+. However the 10% do breed and pass on resistance.
The breeding rate means that a decimated population can recover in 12 months.

Interestingly (well I found it so) the virus will mutate to become less potent and so not kill 100% of it's hosts. This is the reason genetic engineering is so deadly for mammals- a virus will mutate to beat the vaccines but will also mutate not to be 100% fatal.

Sadly for the human rate our reproduction rate is so low that the virus wouldn't have time to mutate to a more benign form before our population was decimated to a small fraction of what it was.

[Beer Hunter]

I got chatting to a farm manager on one of my shoots last night who told me that the land owners in this area pass around live myxy rabbits in the hope of spreading the disease!
Sick sods!

TER...

[Maxwell]

Gary, it's not Mixy!
It's that ****** Rapid thats doing all the killing....


( jeaulous ) Maxwell

[p70shooter]

Originally posted by TER...
I got chatting to a farm manager on one of my shoots last night who told me that the land owners in this area pass around live myxy rabbits in the hope of spreading the disease!
Sick sods!

TER...

I know its bleedin horrible innit. I told my ex boss that i had mixy on my shoot and his answer to that was bring a mixyed rabbit over to his farm I soon told him where to go

[Wurzel]

one of my shoots was hit by mixy last year it took about 2 weeks to go from a nice little shoot to absolutely nothing ... but this year when we were silaging i noticed that it is recovering nicely ... im gonna leave it alone for the rest of the summer in the hope of some good sport next spring ~ summer

wurzel

[hillbill]

Myxi has just appeared on my shoot!! .

About 4 weeks ago all the rabbits were fit and healthy and there was a fair few of them.

I went there on Monday evening and the only rabbit i saw was totally blind, i put it out of its misery from three feet away.
All over the shoot there were dead rabbits lying in the field,some looked like they'd been there a week or two and i didn't see another rabbit all evening.

In 3/4 weeks my shoots gone from a decent bunny shoot to nothing,there's still woodies and a few corvids about but it just won't be the same

'kin Myxi

Rgds
Mark

[Koz]

Ahem...

decimated to a small fraction of what it was

If population is decimated (reduced by 1 in 10) 7 times it will be reduced to about 47% of original.



I'm in a picky mood.
Having trouble building my new PC.

[Baldie]

Originally posted by TER...
I got chatting to a farm manager on one of my shoots last night who told me that the land owners in this area pass around live myxy rabbits in the hope of spreading the disease!
Sick sods!

TER...

As much as I hate to state the obvious, I thought doing this was a criminal offence?

[arnie2b]

U need the proof to make that a criminal offence...as in audio tapes or other means.
f u have commen sence then u wouldn't do that one but just mention it to the farmers and try and persuade them otherwise...good luck with it...
Your farmers have a point in a way and so do u in a way

Just imho.

Arnie