[Day2479 2021-07-09]
Lesson 17-2 A man-made disease
It effectively spread the disease all over the continent and
drastically reduced the rabbit population. It later became apparent that
rabbits were developing a degree of resistance to this disease, so that
the rabbit population was unlikely to be completely exterminated. There
were hopes, however, that the problem of the rabbit would become
manageable.
Ironically, Europe, which had bequeathed the rabbit as a pest to
Australia, acquired this man-made disease as a pestilence. A French
physician decided to get rid of the wild rabbits on his own estate and
introduced myxomatosis. It did not, however, remain within the confines
of his estate. It spread through France, Where wild rabbits are not
generally regarded as a pest but as sport and a useful food supply, and it
spread to Britain where wild rabbits are regarded as a pest but where
domesticated rabbits, equally susceptible to the disease, are the basis of
a profitable fur industry. The question became one of whether Man
could control the disease he had invented.
