In April of 2016, it was announced that the Federal Government authority gave the all clear for a new virus to be released. The virus will kill pest rabbits in the wild.

It is called ‘rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus’, or ‘RHDV’, and a new strand, dubbed K5, will be released in Autumn this year.

It follows a decade-long program by the Invasive Animals Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) investigating biological tools to stop escalating rabbit numbers.

RHDV-K5 it is designed to kill rabbits quickly; however owners of domesticated rabbits are extremely worried due to yet another strand that has made its way into Australia.

The first strain of RHDV, known as the Czech strain (belonging to the RHDV1 family), was released by the government in 1996 to help control wild rabbits in an effort to minimise environmental damage being caused, according to the RSPCA.

This followed an accidental release of the virus in 1995 from CSIRO field trials on Wardang Island in South Australia. An effective vaccine, Cylap has been available for many years to protect domestic rabbits against this strain of the virus.

A small pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Cylap vaccine against K5 has indicated some protection, but further trials need to be undertaken to obtain conclusive results, they said.

A third RHDV, known as RHDV2, was first confirmed in a wild rabbit in Canberra in 2015, with authorities unable to state the source of the infection.

Over the past eighteen months, it has caused the same type of disease and deaths in wild and domesticated rabbits in NSW, ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Northern Territory and Western Australia.

No validated trials have been conducted to test the Cylap vaccine against RHDV2 and there are many reports of vaccinated rabbits dying from infection with RHDV2.

RHDV2 vaccines being used overseas are not currently available in Australia and they may not be effective against the specific RHDV2 found here.

Closer to Port Macquarie, and rabbit owners as close as Gloucester are reporting deaths in many of their rabbits from the disease.

Port Macquarie woman, Ash Oliver, has a pedigree English angora bunny named Lola, who is almost exclusively kept indoors due to fears of the virus.

Her 16 month old daughter, Raleigh Bate, is extremely fond of her “best friend” Lola, heightening her concerns that something may happen if allowed outside.

One Tasmanian woman, Maree Hanning, is fighting the battle and warning other rabbit owners via a Facebook page, which has supporters all over Australia.

“RHDV2 has no official release and the government don’t know how it got here,” Maree said.

“The RHDV-K5 will be released in March and we (a group on Facebook of rabbit lovers who have 1800 members) are trying to stop that.

“There have been so many domestic rabbits lost. We estimate about 30,000 in the last eight months.”

Maree and her passionate fleet of followers will turn their attention to ensuring a vaccine is developed sooner rather than later.

“We need vaccines that work – that is the big thing that we are pushing for,” she said.

“We have to have vaccines that are applicable for us here in Australia. I’ve got somebody approaching the government about a vaccine, and we have had some legal help, so it’s a bit of a waiting game at the moment while all of our rabbits are dying.”