Dear Ministry for Primary Industries,

Otago Regional Council director environmental monitoring and operations Scott MacLean said the New Zealand Rabbit Co-ordination Group (RCG), of which the ORC was a member, had submitted an application for the Korean strain of the calicivirus known as RHDV-1 K5 to be approved. ''We're hoping to get the go-ahead for an autumn bait drop, but if not there would be another window of opportunity in early spring when the rabbits were more likely to eat the infected carrots as there wasn't much fresh grass around and the temperature was optimal for the virus to work,'' Mr MacLean said. He said the new strain would reduce rabbit numbers but warned it ''won't be the silver bullet we're all looking for''. ''It certainly won't wipe them out, but it should boost the effects of the existing calicivirus. ''We're sitting around 73% immunity to the current virus so we're hoping the new strain would boost the 27% who aren't susceptible to up to 40%.''

My question is this:
If RHDV1a-K5 will overcome “natural” immunity, surely it will, therefore overcome “vaccinated” immunity?

Yours faithfully,

Gary Stephenson