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Before myxomatosis decimated feral rabbit populations, it was almost scrapped as a failure – ABC News

In 1950, after years of research, the much-vaunted solution to Australia’s rampant rabbit population was denounced as a failure. But two years later, half a billion rabbits were dead from the myxoma virus.

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In August, 1950, the myxoma virus, the much-vaunted biological control weapon for Australia’s rampant rabbit population, was denounced as a failure.
Newspaper headlines proclaimed what many leading scientists had long opined: that the virus would never succeed.
Warning: this story contains images that may offend some readers.
The general consensus in 1950 was that myxomatosis had failed to control rabbit populations.(Supplied)
Along the upper reaches of the Murray River, a team of Commonweal…

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