Fifty-year review: European rabbit fleas, Spilopsyllus cuniculi (Dale, 1878) (Siphonaptera: Pulicidae), enhanced the efficacy of myxomatosis for controlling Australian rabbits
Brian D. Cooke
A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Institute for Applied Ecology, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia.
Wildlife Research 50(1) 4-15 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR21154
Submitted: 28 October 2021 Accepted: 16 April 2022 Published: 6 July 2022
© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
European rabbit fleas were released among Australian wild rabbits in the late 1960s to supplement mosquitoes as vectors of myxoma virus. Data from study sites across southern Australia in the 1960s and 1970s are reviewed to discern common elements of flea-borne myxomatosis epizootics and a simple model is proposed to explain how virus virulence and food quality interact to determine rabbit abundance. Low, stable populations of rabbits implied that, despite virus attenuation and increased rabbit disease resistance, flea-borne myxomatosis was extremely important in controlling rabbit populations. Despite the enhancement of myxomatosis, livestock producers benefitted little from the additional pasture because marketing difficulties were not conducive to industry growth. Native wildlife likely benefitted, nonetheless.
Keywords: biocontrol, coevolution, conceptual model, conservation, epidemiology, livestock, pasture biomass, vector.
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