Nobody likes a pesky blowfly but scientists say they could hold the key to managing the pest most damaging to Australian agriculture and the country's biodiversity.Scientists relied on members of the public to find dead rabbits and send them in for testingThe CSIRO has started using blowflies to monitor the impact of calicivirus in feral rabbits.
The calicivirus disease has been highly effective in reducing rabbit populations across most of Australia but scientists have struggled to establish an effective way to track the virus. So the CSIRO changed tack and trialled trapping blowflies and examining their digestive tracts for traces of the calicivirus.CSIRO virologist Robyn Hall, who led the fly study, said traps were initially set at Canberra and nearby Murrumbateman in New South Wales.
"Calicivirus is an essential tool for managing rabbit populations across Australia and these viruses are often deliberately released by landholders," Dr Hall said."For those releases to be most effective we need to know where and when natural outbreaks are occurring and what strain of virus is causing that outbreak."
Wow scientists really do want to destroy the earth.
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