phil
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Paul Armand DelilleProf. Paul Felix Armand-Delille (1874‑1963) was a physician, bacteriologist, professor, and member of the French Academy of Medicine who inadvertently brought about the collapse of rabbit populations throughout much of Europe and beyond in the 1950s through the myxomatosis virus.
Born in Fourchambault in Central France, Armand-Delille studied medicine and became a professor at the Paris School of Medicine, specialising in infectious diseases in children. During the First World War he carried out important work on malaria, for which he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour.
It was during his retirement that the events for which he became best-known took place. Having read of the effectiveness of the myxomatosis virus in dealing with rabbit plagues in Australia, in 1952 Armand-Delille decided to introduce the virus onto his 3 km² private estate of Chateau Maillebois in Eure-et-Loire. He believed that the enclosed nature of the estate would prevent its spread. Inoculating two rabbits with virus acquired from a laboratory in Lausanne, Armand-Delille succeeded in rapidly eradicating the population on his estate, with 98% of the rabbits being dead within 6 weeks. However, within 4 months it became clear that the virus had somehow escaped from his estate, the corpse of an infected rabbit having been found 50 km away.
Within a year of the initial release, an estimated 45% of the wild rabbits of France had died of the disease, along with 35% of domestic rabbits, and the disease had spread to the rest of western Europe, decimating rabbit populations in Holland, Belgium, Italy, Spain, England, and beyond. The effect on the rabbit population of France was dramatic. In the hunting season covering the year of the release of the virus, 1952-53, the total number of rabbits killed in 25 hunts exceeded 55 million. The figure for 1956-57 was just 1.3 million, a 98% reduction.
Armand-Delille found himself both condemned by rabbit hunters and showered with praise by farmers and foresters. Prosecuted, in January 1955 he was convicted and fined 5000 francs; and honored, in June 1956 he was awarded a gold medal to commemorate his achievement by Bernard Dufay, honorary director-general of the French Department of Rivers and Forests. The medal depicts Armand-Delille on one side, and a dead rabbit on the other.
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wayland
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Interesting post Phil. I was led to believe that it was spread in the UK by farmers. and not by accident. The first attempt was a failure as unlike in Australia in which the virus was spread by mosquito. this did not work over in the UK. It was not until the rabbit fleas were infected in large enough numbers could the disease be spread.
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phil
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Regardless of Armand Delille's motives he injected the rabbits deliberately.
I would think once farmers could see the damage it was doing to the rabbit population they would help to spread it.
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wayland
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Indeed. I am led to believe that the virus originally came from south America where the local rabbit population had a high degree of immunity. Once the disease took hold over here and the devastation of the rabbit population was clearly seen, there was a call on the guvernment to step in but they declined and decided to let the disease run its course. After all the years since it was introduced it still wipes out pockets of rabbits. My cousin who is a farmer thinks it has been a great success. Perhaps he is right.
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phil
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I can see it from the farmers point of view,but i wonder how much revenue landowners got from the sale of rabbits before myxi.
Do you think rabbit would be as popular now as was in the fifties if myxi hadn't of happened.
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Camile
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Nice story ..
Did I not hear somewhere that the man actually committed suicide after seeing the disaster he created ?
I haven't seen better ways than ferreting yet to control the population of rabbits.
Camile
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phil
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I have read it somewhere that he committed suicide but can't find any evidence to confirm it.
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phil
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Prof. Paul Felix Armand-Delille (1874‑1963) If he did commit suicide,he would of been nearly ninety.
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Camile
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Remorse didn't kill him then !
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wayland
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I think that general public would have had no problem with eating wild rabbit meat if it was not for the mixi. No more than eating duck or pheasant me thinks, but now the do gooders have stepped in. Plus there is a ground swell of opinion that dislikes the killing of wild animals. While I dont like killing anything I will always claim the right to do so for the pot. I was once at the local mart in the UK, there was a number of pheasants put under the hammer but no bids. Well not until I sore what was going on and brought six brace for a fiver  . Feeling well pleased I slung them over mu shoulder and walked to the car park. I was showered with abuse from more than one passer by. Cruel bastard etc. When I was a lad a good days ferreting would see us with a stick over our shoulder with many rabbits hamstrung over it. We would be stopped by locals who would buy a brace or two. Do we live in better times now?
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macconraoi
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| wayland wrote: | | When I was a lad a good days ferreting would see us with a stick over our shoulder with many rabbits hamstrung over it. We would be stopped by locals who would buy a brace or two. Do we live in better times now? |
I don't think we necessarily live in better times.People are far removed from their meat.People don't want to know or (worse still) care where their meat comes from or the life it had before it landed on their plate,
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phil
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As far as im concerned we don't live in better times,progress doesn't always mean better.We seem to be getting further removed from where meat comes from all the time,ratting is something done by people on the telly,
It's ok for HFW to kill a few rabbits and make some poncy dish that people ooh and ahh over,but if you offered the same people a brace of rabbits they couldn't be bothered to clean them.
Celebrity chef's my arse .
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wayland
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Reading back, we do look like a bunch of old farts with "It was better in my day" . Well f**k it was  .
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phil
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Its only when you do think back, that you realise how good it was.
I know what you mean about the old farts though.
All we need now is blowin banging on about his Hippy days.
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wayland
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 I look forward to that
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blowin
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| phil wrote: | | ...All we need now is blowin banging on about his Hippy days. |
Can't remember them ......so I must have been there , as they say
Do remember making my first pocket money at the age of 5 by skinning rabbit which went into the fur trade -- for gloves I think . A Tanner ( 6 pence ) a pelt , about the same as the bounty on a grey squirrel tail in later years . Good money in those days .
My old Grandad was a Gamekeeper in Rutland before the dam was built and the whole county was turned into a massive reservoir . Part of his responsibility was to control the rabbit population on the estate but I think he was sad when this horrible disease helped him in that task .
It is a long time since I have eaten wild rabbit but seem to remember that the young ones are very tasty but the mature bucks take on a taint which is a bit strong for the average pallet .
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wayland
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I cought many a pike on Rutland water. I think that NZ whites taste better than any wild rabbit. Having said this i like to eat wild rabbit. There is one that frequents my veg plot as I write. Now there is an "R" in the month he is fare game me thinks.
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