Rabbits

[Muddy Boots]

Ok I know I don't post much on here but wondered if you guys could shed some light on this for me.

I was talking to my local butcher yestarday as it is coming into game season and asked about rabbit and he said he couldn't get any this year as there was a problem.

Now I am sure the problem isn't that they have all vanished off the planet but he couldn't give me any more info.

Anyone shed light on this please?

Many thanks.

 

[malente]

Maybe local myxi outbreak (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myxomatosis)?

 

[Matt.S]

There's been a lot of myxi about this year, or so I hear. Haven't seen any myself.

 

[AlexRowan]

I've seen and err dealt with lots of mixy bunnies this year. However, everytime I go out there's still an abundance of perfectly healthy (and juicy) ones hopping about.

 

[Big Geordie]

Hi Guys,

Interesting thread. I thought Mixy rabbits are still edible. Did I get that wrong?
G

 

[some like it cold]

theres a big roundabout near me that has dozens of huge ones as theres no predators so they're out all day eating not sure about trying to get them with my air rifle tho as its a rather popular route and never quiet enough to go unnoticed

 

[malente]

Correct me if I'm wrong but the general advise is not to eat them. They might seem to be no adverse health effects but it hasn't been researched IMHO. It's just not worth the risk unless in a survival situation.

Hi Guys,

Interesting thread. I thought Mixy rabbits are still edible. Did I get that wrong?
G

 

[Neumo]

There are still bunnies around but not as many as in the spring due to Mixi, natural predation & people shooting them. The first heavy frosts aslo take quite a few of the weaker ones, at leaast round our way. That said, you can get rabbit all year round if you know what you are doing; even had some in the snow last year that was fun

 

[Neumo]

As for Mixi, lots of people have said that you can eat them but most of the time I see them they are pretty far gone with puss coming out of their eyes, so it's something I tend to leave for the foxes etc... once they have been put out of their misery.

 

[stooboy]

Ive noticed that there are more in urban areas than rural, i discussed this recently and someone said there was something added to crop sprays that has affected them but i cant find anything to confirm it, conspiracy theory?, that and the harsh winter we had. ive never noticed the mixy to have an effect on population in years gone by. id never eat a diseased animal, and check any non mixy for white spots on the liver.

 

[Cromm]

Been told you can eat them just not the liver with the white spots.....

 

[HillBill]

I wouldn't eat myxi'd rabbit, nor any diseased rabbit. Myxi is after all man made, If an animal gets a disease that is terminal, then why put that in your body?

Sensible advice is leave well alone.

 

[BorderReiver]

My part of Norfolk is rotten with bunnies at the moment. A fair bit of myxy too.

AFAIK it is safe to eat mixy rabbits but as HillBill says, why take the risk?

 

[harryhaller]

The australian scientists who worked with the virus injected themselves with it to prove that it was safe for humans.

An early event in his life that has captured the attention of all those who hear it was the occasion when he and two other scientists, MacFarlane Burnet (who in 1960 became a Nobel Laureate), and Clunies Ross (Chief of CSIRO) injected themselves with myxoma virus, to prove it was safe for humans.

In the early 1950s an outbreak of Murray Valley encephalitis occurred just as myxomatosis first spread. The public thought that the encephalitis was caused by myxoma virus, and challenged Sir Macfarlane Burnet (who had isolated the MVE virus) to inject himself. Burnet consulted Frank Fenner, who was working in his laboratory, and they injected each other with material that Frank Fenner prepared. He says "this was no big deal at the time". Not for him perhaps, but the rest of Australia found it enormously reassuring.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/ya2wtmx

 

[stooboy]

i guess its personal preference like, i guess youd eat anything if your hungry enough but lets just say id have to be pritty damn hungry to eat a mixy rabit

 

[Ogri the trog]

There are more serious diseases that rabbits suffer than Myxi, that can make them un-apetising to say the least. The two biggies are RHD (Rabbit Heamorrhagic Disease) a rabbit form similar to Ebola virus, and Tulemaria Virus - a parasitic worm that lives in the body cavity, that eats its way into the flesh upon sensing the death of its host, knowing that it is likely to be eaten by its next host.
RHD is recognisable by bleeding from every orifice and Tulemaria by white, gel filled pusstules inside the body cavity. It is claimed that thorough cooking will kill the worms but frankly......... I'd rather not.
Whenever I demonstrate cleaning a rabbit I advocate the use of a skin barrier like latex or nitrile gloves (wherever possible) and a cleanliness regime coupled with high levels of vigilance. As has been said already, why take the risk?

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[spamel]

The only weird things I've come across are massive livers more often then not heavily spotted, a large female rabbit I shot the other day that was heavy with fat (I've never seen anything like it, it looks like her milk was just finishing drying up so she was in very good health, but she had so much fat on her it was unreal!) and the odd mixy rabbit last year on the farm in my village. The farm here is starting to get its' numbers back up, I hope after Christmas that it may be worth starting to go back up there to do more shooting on a regular basis. The fox is back there and doing his best to keep the numbers down, but time will tell.

The rabbits with massive livers I tend to leave for the fox. They look to be a good size until you unzip them and empty the liver out and then it is just the scrawniest thing ever. They shouldn't be struggling as both farms are rearing live stock, one being a dairy farm and the other rearing sheep and pigs. There's plenty of grub about, but this keeps cropping up. I tend to take what I think looks healthy and have had no complaints so far.

I did get told by the local priest, when I took him some rabbit around for him and his son, that you should never eat a rabbit given to you minus the head, so I shall leave the heads on for him from now on!

 

[Muddy Boots]

Many thanks for clearing this up. I am new to Bushcraft and although I knew about Mixi just naturally presumed that it had been iradicated.

I was out for a walk in my local area yestarday aorund sunset and did not see one rabbit.

I know it sounds a little strange but the level of road kill around this part of the world when it comes to rabbits has massively declined as well.

I tend to use this as a judge of current population.

I find it strange that there has been no media coverage as such about this.

Oh and incidently sorry I posted in the wrong part of the forum I had no idea there was a specific section for this topic.

 

[Neumo]

I have heard stories, third hand, that some farmers have been buying Myxi from Austraila via the internet & then releasing it in the UK. Probably just another Urban (or Rural) legend, that is possible but unlikely, as they would get seriously nicked if they were caught. The Myxi in the places I go have been at more or less the same levels for the past 6 years of so, with outbreaks every 18 months or so.

I did get told by the local priest, when I took him some rabbit around for him and his son, that you should never eat a rabbit given to you minus the head, so I shall leave the heads on for him from now on!

Thats a new one on me. Checking the liver I can understand but just paunching/skinning a rabbit then taking it's head off should not affect the meat. Maybe he looks into their eyes or something!

 

[Ogri the trog]

Thats a new one on me. .....Maybe he looks into their eyes or something!

Thats right,
you can get a good idea of how fresh the meat is from the eyes - they go cloudy the longer the animal has been dead, even if it has been chilled. Rabbits often smell a little, especially the bucks (males) who have a scent gland near their anal vent - often called a "stink bone". If the smell gets on your hands, there isn't much you can do about it apart from wait till it dissipates. So smell is no real indicator of the age of the meat.

ATB

Ogri the trog