AN OUTBREAK of myxomatosis has hit a L’Eree nature reserve. A Rocquaine resident said she feared the viral rabbit disease, which is highly infectious and usually fatal, was particularly common this summer.

Animal Aid volunteer Linda Laine said that during the past 10 days alone, she and her husband had come across four rabbits on separate occasions which they believed were suffering from the disease.

‘Those poor little rabbits – their eyes were bulging and I could see that they were really suffering,’ said retired nurse Mrs Laine.

‘I couldn’t just leave them there, so I took them all to the vets to be put to sleep,’ she said.

But John Knight, a partner at the practice where Mrs Laine took the animals to be euthanised, said that sadly the disease was nature’s way of keeping the rabbit population down.

‘Myxomatosis flares up every year or two,’ he said.

‘It’s basically related to the population of rabbits. The more animals there are, the more cases arise.

‘There are always a few that get over the disease and develop a resistance to it. It’s part of their natural cycle, but fortunately it doesn’t affect any other animal we have in Guernsey.’

He said that although the number of rabbits currently affected was probably worse than it was this time last year, it was still within its normal range.

Mrs Laine, who said she always carried a box in her car boot in case she spots an injured wild animal while driving, said she was shocked at the number of people who just drove on past the sick animals.

‘In this case, the best thing to do was to get them put to sleep,’ she said. ‘They were so ill.’

Mrs Laine said she had gone to the vet straight away because she knew Animal Aid would not be able to carry out the procedure.

Shelter staff have to transport rabbits with myxomatosis to a veterinary surgery, she said, adding that she was concerned the disease might cross over to domestic rabbits.

‘If pet rabbits caught it, that would be terrible,’ she said.

Mr Knight said it was important that pet rabbits were given their yearly vaccination against the disease, which is transferred by fleas rather than direct contact with their wild counterparts.

‘Pet owners do need to worry,’ he said.

‘These fleas can be picked up by cats, too, if they cross over land where an infected rabbit has been. They might take it home and pass it onto a rabbit.

‘So it’s important that pet rabbits are properly treated to safeguard them.’

He said that domestic rabbits should also be vaccinated against viral haemorragic disease – VHD – on a yearly basis.