ALERT- Oppose Deadly Rabbit virus biocide NOW

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Environment Australia is NOW considering giving their

approval to the use of RCD (Rabbit haemorrhagic disease) edible baits

to kill wild introduced European rabbits in Australia .

 

Environment Australia is the department of the Australian government

dealing with the environment.

 

The NRA (National Registration Authority)

have yet to legalise the RCD baits in Australia.

 

I believe the NRA will need the approval of Environment Australia to

legalise the RCD baits

and Environment Australia will give their final decision to the NRA at the

end of March 2001.

 

Environment Australia is NOT calling for public submissions on the RCD bait

issue however anyone with any scientific or environmental knowledge of

the issue may send a submission about RCD baits to the

chemical evaluation manager at Environment Australia by fax.

 

Submissions must be in this week to give time for consideration

(the earlier the better).

 

Submissions with a scientific or environmental basis will be preferred

rather than emotive submissions according to my source.

 

If you know of anyone who would like to send a submission to Environment

Australia, (especially anyone with scientific qualifications) please ask

them to write to

 

Mr Chris Lee Steere,

Chemical Evaluations Manager,

Environment Australia

Fax +61 2 62500387

 

In the first week of April I will be attending my next status conference

with

the NRA and my Environmental Defenders Office lawyer. We are attempting to

obtain RCD bait information from the NRA under the FOI Act (this has been

dragging on for

2 years now).

 

Any help on submissions to Environment Australia would be much appreciated.

If Environment Australia do not approve the RCD baits, the whole

consideration process

may grind to a halt.

 

There is a huge archive on about RCD useful for preparing

submissions on my website See :

 

http://www.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/rrcd.htm

 

 

Some of the issues to mention include

 

* possible future change in host range of the RCD/RHD virus

*Effects on the birds of prey of a decline in European rabbits in Australia-

introduced wild European rabbits are a major food source of many birds of

prey

(wedge tailed eagle numbers have declined by 30-40% in parts of Australia

in the past few years since the arrival of RHD and I believe a bird count is

still underway

in the Eastern states of Australia).

*Lack of an Environmental Impact Statement on the RHD virus (a draft EIS was

prepared

but never formalised)

*Ear rot and protracted deaths of rabbits in New Zealand (the only country

ever

to spread RHD on baits). There has been lack of funding to research why the

ear-rot appeared in New Zealand.

*RCD/RHD baits may confer immunity to wild rabbits against RCD according to

New Zealand researchers. (see website).

*Australia has a large number of animal species existing no-where

else in the world - they may eat the RCD/RHD baits or rabbits heavily

infected

with RCD/RHD and consume large doses of live RCD/RHD virus and no testing

using large doses of RHD virus fed orally to native

Australian animals (or humans) has been conducted as far as we know.

*There is no monitoring program to monitor any effcts of the use of baits on

other animals.

*The increase in the use of RCD/RHD live virus on baits may increase the

likelihood

of outbreaks of RHD in other countries where the disease is unwanted (the

RCD/RHD

virus is resiliant and may travel on clothing and may be carried by

migratory birds

or sea mammals and on insects and dust particles. An outbreak of RHD occured

in Mexico

in the 1980's and was thought to have arrived on frozen food).

*There are no safe vaccines to protect Australian native animals or humans

should RHD choose

to switch on in another host species.

*RHD is NOT species specific. RCD/RHD most probably changed hosts to

European rabbits

from an unknown reservoir species and RHD has killed European brown hares (a

different genus

to the European rabbit). According to CSIRO tests, some animal species

tested positive to RCD/RHD when injected with low doses of the RCD virus

their antibody levels were above the 30% cut-off level).

*At the time RCD/RHD was released, 4 out of 5 caliciviruses were known to

infect humans and

RCD/RHD antibodies were found in a Mexican laboratory worker according to

the Australian

RCD program (Hepatitis E [a calicivirus that kills a large percentage of

pregnant women infected with Hepatitis E] has since been re-classified ).

*RCD/RHD is a relatively new virus, only having apeared for the first time

in China in 1984.

Little is know or understood about the RCD/RHD virus which kills a mammal

often within

2 days - faster than Ebola. The disease has no cure.

*The RCD/RHD virus in Australia has not been successful in some areas of

Australia

and the RCD virus escaped from open air testing on Wardang Island in 1995

(showing an

inability of humans to contain the virus).

*Dr Alvin Smith and Dr David Matson, USA specialists in caliciviruses have

warned

Australian authorities of the dangers of the spreading the RHD virus but

their warnings have been

ignored.

See Dr Smiths website at http://www.vet.orst.edu/FCSTFHOM/Smith-A/CALICI.HTM

Also see letters from other scientists who are very concerned at the spread

of RCD/RHD

http://www.iinet.net.au/~rabbit/sci.htm

 

Kind regards,

 

Marguerite