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Myxomatosis : a History of Pest Control and the Rabbit

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Myxomatosis : a History of Pest Control and the Rabbit MYXOMATOSIS MYXOMATOSIS A History of Pest Control and the Rabbit PETER W. J. BARTRIP Tauris Academic Studies LONDON • NEW YORK Published in 2008 by Tauris Academic Studies, an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com In the United States of America and Canada distributed by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin’s Press 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2008 Peter W. J. Bartrip The right of Peter W. J. Bartrip to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978 1 84511 572 2 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by Oxford Publishing Services, Oxford Contents List of Tables and Illustrations vi List of Abbreviations viii Acknowledgements xi 1. Before Bough Beech 1 2. The War on the Rabbit 20 3. Narrative of a Disease 44 4. Accident or Design? 58 5. The Myxomatosis Advisory Committee 78 6. Deliberate Transmission 95 7. After the Deluge 108 8. Agriculture and Environment 134 9. Attitude and Opinion 159 10. Conclusion 193 Notes 210 Bibliography 255 Index 267 List of Tables and Illustrations Tables 3.1 County-by-County Spread of Myxomatosis (England and Wales) October 1953–October 1954 55 3.2. County-by-County Spread of Myxomatosis (Scotland), July 1954–May 1955. 56 8.1. UK Cereal Production and Yield, 1950–59 141 Illustrations 1. Rabbit with myxomatosis. Museum of English Rural Life (Reading). 16 2. Before myxomatosis struck. Southern Weekly News, 7 May 1954. 39 3. Major C. W. Hume. Farmer & Stock-breeder, 16–17 November 1954. 43 4. Frederick Feeke, Major Williams’s gamekeeper, Southern Weekly News, 30 October 1953. 46 5. Mr Wicks of Syliards Farm. Southern Weekly News, 30 October 1953. 49 6. Lord Carrington. Southern Weekly News, 30 October 1953. 51 7. William Milne of Durris with daughter, Julia, and diseased rabbit. Press & Journal (Aberdeen) 14 July 1954. 98 8. Stop this heartless traffic in myxomatosis! The Times, 17 September 1954. 99 9. ‘Dreamed some crank had introduced something to replace the rabbit, Farmer & Stock-breeder, 31 May–1 June 1955. 136 LIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS vii 10. ‘No excitement at harvest time since the rabbits went.’ Farmer & Stock-breeder, 21–22 August 1956. 143 11. A rabbit has been seen in the district. Farmer & Stock-breeder, 16 April 1957. 151 List of Abbreviations ACRC advisory committee on rabbit clearance ACROLP Advisory Committee on Rabbits and other Land Pests AEC Agricultural Executive Committee AI Avian Influenza AHT Animal Health Trust ARC Agricultural Research Council BAF Board of Agriculture and Fisheries BAP Bureau of Animal Population BBC British Broadcasting Corporation BFAWS British Federation of Animal Welfare Societies BSc Bachelor of Science BSE Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy BTO British Trust for Ornithology BVA British Veterinary Association CAEC County Agricultural Executive Committee CJD Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease CLA Country Landowners’ Association CSIR Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (till 1949) CSIRO Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (from 1949) CSVO Chief Superintending Veterinary Officer CVO Chief Veterinary Officer DAS Department of Agriculture Scotland DCVO Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer DORA Defence of the Realm Act DSc Doctor of Science LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ix DVO Divisional Veterinary Officer DVSM Diploma in Veterinary State Medicine FMD foot and mouth disease FRCP Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians FRS Fellow of the Royal Society FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh HO Home Office ICD Infestation Control Division ICI Imperial Chemical Industries LPAC Land Pests Advisory Committee MA Master of Arts MAC Myxomatosis Advisory Committee MAF Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (till October 1954) MAFF Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (from October 1954) MC Military Cross MD Doctor of Medicine MIRD myxomatosis-induced rabbit depopulation MRC Medical Research Council MRCVS Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons MSBI Mammal Society of the British Isles NA National Archives NAS National Archives of Scotland NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization NC Nature Conservancy NFU National Farmers’ Union NFUS National Farmers’ Union Scotland NSW New South Wales NUAW National Union of Agricultural Workers PHLS Public Health Laboratory Service PP Parliamentary Papers PREM Premier x LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS P&J Press and Journal QC Queen’s Counsel QJF Quarterly Journal of Forestry RCA Rabbit Clearance Areas RCC Rabbit Clearance Committee RCS Rabbit Clearance Society RCVS Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons RPO regional pest officer RSPCA Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ScD Doctor of Science SHAC Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty SLF Scottish Landowners’ Federation SPCA Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals SR&O Statutory Rules & Orders SSSI Site(s) of Special Scientific Interest SVO Superintending Veterinary Officer SWN Southern Weekly News TGWU Transport and General Workers’ Union TUC Trades Union Congress UFAW Universities Federation for Animal Welfare ULAWS University of London Animal Welfare Society VO Veterinary Officer WAEC War Agricultural Executive Committee Acknowledgements I am delighted to acknowledge the financial support of the Wellcome Trust (History of Medicine Section) in the form of generous Research Expenses and Research Leave Awards covering the period 2003–2006. Without these awards this book would not have been written. I acknowledge also a period of research leave granted by the University of Northampton which helped me to get my project up and running. The following people graciously granted me interviews and permission to quote their words: Lord Carrington, Mrs Georgina Coleby (née Ottaway), Cyril Skinner and Stuart Wicks. I much appreciate their assistance. I am grateful to the curators, archivists, librarians and other staff of the Bodleian Library (especially the Radcliffe Science Library), BBC Research Central, BBC Written Archives Centre, British Library National Sound Archives, British Newspaper Library, National Archives, National Archives of Scotland, Museum of English Rural Life (particularly Caroline Benson for her help with illustrations), Christopher Reed of the RSPCA Archives, Jane Thornton Higgs, curator of the Eden Valley Museum and Tony Mutimer-Still. The editors of the Edenbridge Chronicle and the Kent and Sussex Courier kindly printed appeals for information from people who remembered or were involved in the first myxomatosis outbreak. John Sheail generously allowed me a pre-publication view of his paper ‘Wartime rodent-control in England and Wales’ in B. Short et al. (eds), The Frontline of Freedom: British Agriculture in the Second World War (Agricultural History Review supplement 4: BAHS, 2007). Steve King and John Stewart were good enough to read my manuscript – for which, many thanks. I am grateful too to Denis Galligan, Director of the Centre for Socio- Legal Studies, the University of Oxford, for according me associate research fellow status and providing me with office space. ‘Myxomatosis’ by Philip Larkin is reprinted from The Less Deceived by xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS kind permission of The Marvell Press, England and Australia. For permission to reproduce illustrations I am grateful to the British Library, the Museum of English Rural Life, Newsquest and the Press and Journal (Aberdeen). Peter Bartrip March 2007 Chapter 1 Before Bough Beech A New Disease? In September 1953 a number of dead rabbits were found on Major Williams’s Bough Beech estate near Edenbridge in Kent. Early indi- cations suggested syphilis. A month later, on 13 October, it was confirmed that further rabbit deaths on the estate had actually been caused by myxomatosis.1 A disease hitherto unknown in England, except in the context of scientific investigation, had reached the United Kingdom. Soon myxomatosis was breaking out elsewhere, initially in Kent and Sussex, but before long in other counties. Within a short time, but also for a short time, myxomatosis virtually eliminated the wild rabbit from Great Britain. When myxomatosis was discovered at Bough Beech it was not a new disease; in fact, by October 1953 it had been rampaging through France for over a year and across other parts of continental Europe for a somewhat shorter period. Since 1950 it had been present among the wild rabbit population of Australia – to devastating effect from 1951. It had first been reported among laboratory animals in Uruguay as long ago as the 1890s. In October 1953 myxomatosis was not even new to Britain, for experiments with it as a potential means of rabbit control date back to the early 1930s. Furthermore, beginning in June 1952, staff at the North of Scotland College of Agriculture tried to exterminate rabbits on the Heisker (Monach) Islands in the Hebrides using myxomatosis virus.2 Neither was the appearance of the disease in England in October 1953 altogether unexpected. In view of its presence in northern France many observers, whether they welcomed or dreaded the prospect, considered that its arrival in Britain was ‘inevitable’. So what is myxomatosis and what was its history before it was 2 MYXOMATOSIS: A HISTORY OF PEST CONTROL AND THE RABBIT spotted at Bough Beech? Myxomatosis is a highly infectious, sub- cutaneous, viral pox disease. It was actually the second animal virus known to science, the first being foot and mouth.3 For years myxoma- tosis was thought to spread mainly by contact.
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