RABBIT owners are being urged to have their pets immunised against calicivirus which is fatal to bunnies.
The Greater Sydney Local Land Services has started to release the calicivirus to control the feral rabbit population in March.
A second release of infected carrots will take place in May as part of the program to control the city's wild rabbit population.
The carrots, chopped and laced with Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus, were first distributed by Greater Sydney Local Land Services to more than 30 councils and other government bodies and released in council-owned parks, school grounds, national parks and other public spaces after dusk on March 12.
Sylvania Veterinary Hospital's practice manager Kellie Lumb has urged owners to have their pet rabbits immunised.
Calicivirus is transmitted easily through green feed, direct rabbit-to-rabbit contact, carrion birds, and flies and mosquitoes.
"Rabbits usually start to show signs of being unwell within 12-18 hours of exposure," she said.
"They will become quiet, go off their food and water, and go into cardiac and/or respiratory arrest.
"The fatality rate is almost 100 per cent and they usually die within 30 hours."
Rabbits should be at least 10 weeks old to be vaccinated and they require a booster vaccination every 12 months.
Animals Australia says the calicivirus appeared in China in the mid-1980s and was used by the federal government to control rampant wild rabbit populations in 1996.
The number of wild rabbits has been an on-going problem in regions including Sutherland Shire, where they often gather at dusk around Cronulla, with some residents feeding them.
Do you think the use of calicivirus is the best way of dealing with the wild rabbit population?
