New Zealand with her avian treasury of unique species will surely be especially sensitive to this compelling piece of evidence . There are also anecdotal accounts of RHD having spread to other species but these have not been properly investigated. In a display animal show in Western Australia, rabbits died of RHD and at the same time the guinea pigs also died with signs of bleeding. There have been numerous reports of crashing populations of birds of prey, as well as cat and fox populations in RHD infected areas. In Tasmania, concurrent with RHD passing through an area, an entire colony of bandicoots disappeared.
Safety regarding human infection is even more troubling.
The available data has been re-examined in various ways and continues to show increased illnesses associated with RHD exposure. Scientist will affirm that when a person becomes infected, the progeny virus shed by that person will be much better adapted to a new human host. Therefore, once an event in a new host occurs, the law of odds for the virus to infect others of the same species shift by quantum leaps. These are the scientific facts and the genesis of virtually every new epidemic. Political positioning may result in some decision makers disregarding them, but the facts don't change and don't go away.