# Talk:Myxomatosis

The UK Land Registry doesn't have land to call 'its' own (although it may possibly own some office buildings). It REGISTERS land: the clue is in the name. Is that sentence meant to say that it's 'UK land' aka 'the UK' one is talking about? Then it should say so in intelligible English.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.68.94.86 (talk) 16:57, 16 May 2014 (UTC) 

I am looking for some reviews for the article rabbit haemorrhagic disease. Thank you!  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lisakauth (talk • contribs) 17:21, 6 April 2008 (UTC) 
Au bey it infects cats too.my rabbit died of this who ever made this disease is horrible.

According to [1] and [2], myxomatosis does not infect cats, although cats may carry fleas which carry the virus. -- Tim Starling 07:50, Sep 8, 2004 (UTC)

Is this the "White Blindness" that the rabbits are so worried about in the Watership Down books? --UsaSatsui 09:34, 4 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Four years may be a bit of a long wait for a reply... but yes, it is. Loganberry (Talk) 19:02, 6 September 2009 (UTC)

The article says that 35% of infected rabbits in Europe now survive. What happens to those? Are they likely to survive in the longer term, or are the effects of the disease such that they are unlikely to avoid predators etc? Some info on this would be useful. 86.132.139.89 (talk) 20:38, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Why does the first full paragraph in this article begin with the word CATLUM in capitals. I don't know what this means or why it might be there, surely many other lay people won't either?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Kevoreilly (talk • contribs) 12:54, 5 October 2009 (UTC) 
OK well I have searched and found no answer, so I'm gonna remove this strange word. Perhaps it was just defacing... 213.121.187.247 (talk) 15:17, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

The article states "First observed in Uruguay in the late 1800s [later in the article this is specified as 1896], it was introduced illegally into Egypt in 1842..." Surely the Egyptian date is a typo for 1942, or some other year after it was in fact discovered? Phil wink (talk) 15:27, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Controversy- Surely a type of mass animal genocide was controversial. Any insight into this especially at the given years (pre-PETA) days etc.
Effect on Humans- any cases of spread to humans
Radiohead song named after the disease- I find this interesting as this could have many brilliant meanings. From animal rights to governments feeling they have the right to commit genocide on any living thing from rabbits to humans. The haunting lyrics of the song are "I got myxomatosis"  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.49.114.48 (talk) 11:44, 26 March 2011 (UTC) 

Part of the tagged section says that death usually occurs in 48 hours. Right after that we get a sentence indicating that indicates it occurs within 14 days. Which is it? Midhart90 (talk) 13:55, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Fixed. WikiDan61ChatMe!ReadMe!! 15:49, 6 November 2012 (UTC)

Mark Marathon deleted this sentence: "The Spanish Imperial Eagle and the Iberian Lynx, among others, are now almost extinct because the decline of the rabbit population, which is about 80% of their diets, has caused mass starvation." because it was unreferenced.
I found a ref for the info about the Spanish Imperial Eagle at least: http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3534.
His edit also left this sentence hanging: "The disease has wider consequences apart from the death of rabbits", therefore it is now undone.
This ref needs to be added but I have never done that before.
Can somebody Else do it? Thanks
Ineverheardofhim (talk) 11:42, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

1) That article doesn't mention Myxomatosis. It does refer Viral Haemorrhagic Disease, aka Rabbit Calicivorus. But that is a completely different disease.
2) Even WRT calicivirus, the article never suggests that Eagles "are now almost extinct because the decline of the rabbit population" caused by the disease. It says that eagles have reduced breeding success due to the disease, and notes that no populations at all are at risk of extinction from any cause.
So I've once more reverted the material pending a reference. Mark Marathon (talk) 22:19, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Where did the virus come from?  Is it a natural virus or was it man made?  This is not clearly stated in the article. Malcolmmwa (talk) 13:50, 13 June 2014 (UTC)
I read that it was introduced in different regions to control rabbit populations (mainly in Australia), and that it was first observed in a laboratory, but I cannot tell whether the virus already existed and was just spread to new places (including places where it had never occured and the rabbits had no natural immunity) or if the disease was completely created by humans.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Malcolmmwa (talk • contribs) 13:58, 13 June 2014 (UTC) 

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Hello! I am a rabbit vet working on behalf of WikiProject Veterinary Medicine to improve the medical information on this page. I am knowledgeable on the subject matter but entirely new to Wikipedia editing. I apologize in advance for my clumsiness. Please let me know if I am making mistakes or gaffs. Thank you, Rabbit Vet (talk) 09:17, 17 July 2019 (UTC)

Sounds like a good start to me! Happy editing! Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 13:15, 17 July 2019 (UTC)
I would like to add clarification on the two strains of myxoma virus, the South American strain (this is the one that was released in Australia and Europe) and the Californian strain. There is no information currently on this page about Californian myxoma virus. This virus occurs in Baja Mexico, western coastal United States, and southwestern coastal Canada. It is more virulent and has a different presentation than the South American strain. Rabbit Vet (talk) 03:13, 18 July 2019 (UTC). I will also be adding separate sections on Europe and Australia, as the situations in these two locations differ from a medical standpoint. Rabbit Vet (talk) 15:41, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
This page is currently receiving a "C" rating, i.e. it is considered a poor source of veterinary information. I will be working hard to correct this, and want to change our rating to GA. To do this changes will necessarily be needed. I will (mostly) not be removing content, but will be adding in new pertinent information, clarifying statements, adding references, and in some cases moving content from one section to another. I will also be adding information which may seem obvious but is placed there to counteract common misconceptions about myxomatosis that pervade the internet (such as that it is a man made virus). So far my efforts have been hampered by editors who are quickly removing what I add, or moving it and placing it in inappropriate locations. I would appreciate if people would not do this. I have a whole plan in mind and can't achieve it if things keep moving and disappearing. If you disagree with me or want to discuss things please let us have the discussion here. If this is a pet project of yours that you haven't yet got around to, and you would rather be the one to rewrite and improve this page, please let me know. Thank you! Rabbit Vet (talk) 15:41, 18 July 2019 (UTC)
I apologize for the wording above, I did not mean to violate Wikipedia protocols. I am new to Wikipedia editing, and did not realize that what was happening to my input was the result of someone's disruptive (rather than well-intentioned) editing. I would like to restate the above to say that I am currently working hard on this article and appreciate all your help! :-) Rabbit Vet (talk) 13:49, 20 July 2019 (UTC)

This review is transcluded from Talk:Myxomatosis/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.
Reviewer: I'll take this one. Chiswick Chap (talk · contribs) 14:06, 31 July 2019 (UTC)


### Comments
This article reads well and is nearly ready for GA. However there are some mainly formatting issues that need to be resolved first.

References 1, 2, 6, 8 etc are all to the same paper by Anna Meredith and should be merged to a single named ref (e.g. <ref name="Meredith 2013">.....</ref>, second and subsequent times <ref name="Meredith 2013"/> with no further definition) with a page range that spans the whole paper (pages=705-714). If a paper is really long (say, over 100 pages) then it might make sense to use a subrange or individual page ref but frankly for papers of normal length we just cite the whole paper. Y
<Yes I agree. I initially had it that way, but an editor in the teahouse area said I needed to cite each page specifically so I changed it. I will change it back!Rabbit Vet (talk)> <For some reason I can't understand I am having trouble combining all the Meredith references. The Kerr ones I did no problem. Is there a problem with my syntax? I am cutting and pasting so I don't understand why it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't  Rabbit Vet (talk)>
You'd forgotten the closing "/". I've fixed it for you... Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:28, 1 August 2019 (UTC)
Aha! Thank you!! Rabbit Vet (talk)
Similarly, Peter Kerr's 'Viral Infections of Rabbits' refs 4, 7, 9 etc need to be named and merged. Page range is pages=437-468 (well within the acceptable range limit). Y
<fixed Rabbit Vet (talk)>
Same for Kerr 2015. Page range is 1020-1061.  BTW there are multiple authors here, it would be best to cite them. The DOI tool (http://reftag.appspot.com/doiweb.py) does this automatically. Y
<fixed Rabbit Vet (talk)>
Several statements give the impression of being uncited. On inspection it seems likely that these are from the same sources used earlier in their paragraphs. Please either move the refs to paragraph end or name and repeat the refs for clarity. Y
Hopefully I fixed this. Let me know if I missed any.
Please remove all spaces before ref tags. Y
I think this is fixed.
Ref tags go after punctuation. Y
I think this is fixed.
'Other preventative measures' uses a bulleted list, which comes across as pure How To advice, which isn't really allowed on Wikipedia.  I suggest you reword it as a paragraph of text, not a list, so that it comes across as measures that can be taken, e.g. "The risk of a pet's contracting myxomatosis can be reduced by preventing contact with wild rabbits." (This example also removes the "your" style, which we don't use either.) Y
Done
"European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)": please format species names in italics. You've done this already below under 'South America'; the species name should be removed from there as we only need to define it once. Y
Fixed! Rabbit Vet (talk)
We only need one image of a rabbit with the virus (and we only use one image in the lead). Y
The Californian viral strain causes symptoms that look different from the South American strains present in Europe and Australia. Thus we need at least two photos. I will clarify this in the image captions. Rabbit Vet (talk)
Is there an electron micrograph of the virus available? Y
Yes. I added it to the diagnosis section. Rabbit Vet (talk)
Thanks!
The bulleted list of 'Clinical presentation' would be better formatted as a table with a column for Days on the left, Symptoms on the right. Y
Done
There is scope for an image of the tapeti or brush rabbit in the 'Cause' section. Y
Put one in! Rabbit Vet (talk)

I suggest you use the attached historic image in the 'Australia' section. Y
Thanks, that's a great pic Rabbit Vet (talk)
There is scope for a map of dissemination in the 'population control' section. If there is a Public Domain or CC-by-SA map we could use that; or we could prepare a simple world map with dates (if you twist my arm, perhaps). Better would be a map with dated 'contours' of spread across Australia. Y
That sounds cool, but I am unable to locate such a map, or data we could use to create such a map (would be data from the 1950s).
Ok, it's not a requirement. I may have produced a simple one with the dates in the article already. Chiswick Chap (talk) 08:23, 4 August 2019 (UTC)
'selection' should be wikilinked to natural selection. Y
Done
'genetic resistance' should be wikilinked to disease resistance. Y
Done
You mention that the disease has been extensively studied for "what occurs when a virus jumps from a species adapted to it to a naive host"; there should be a matching section 'Research' that highlights the uses that the disease has been put to in research (NOT just research on the disease). This should be based on secondary or tertiary review sources, not on primary scientific papers. Y
I'm not entirely clear on what you would like to see here re: research. There is lots of research on the myxoma virus and its uses in human medicine, but I assume this is better discussed on the myxoma virus page so I put information on it there. For the paragraph on this page I did change the reference from a primary to a secondary source, and reworded the paragraph a bit. Let me know if this meets your needs, thanks!
That's great, thanks. Chiswick Chap (talk) 06:59, 5 August 2019 (UTC)
You might want to consider using File:Evolutionary History of MYXV.tiff to illustrate your Research section. Y
Added
There is no need for the single ref in the lead section (indeed, if there were, it should all have been cited). Y
Okay, I removed it.
Best explain what "an amyxomatous form" means. Y
Let me know if I have clarified it sufficiently.


### Summary
Good work. That all seems to be done and I'm satisfied the article is well up to GA standard. I hope you'll consider reviewing one or two of the articles waiting for GA on the nominations page. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:55, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

This disturbing image is the first thing you see when the article page loads. It needs to be a thumbnail that you can click on, and it needs to not be the first thing that a person sees when they open the page. Otherwise, a different photo should be used, or the photo should be placed farther down in the article. I didn't even click on this page on purpose, and suddenly I got this really gross picture that is very disturbing to me. Goddesseverywhere (talk) 23:33, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

The use of images is often subjective, one persons disturbing can be anothers WP:NOTCENSORED/WP:DISC. IMO, the image is a fitting WP:LEADIMAGE for this topic. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:15, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
It is appropriate for the subject of the article. (For a similar discussion and resolution see Talk:Smallpox). Graham Beards (talk) 09:01, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
Hi Goddesseverywhere! I am a veterinarian and responsible for the photograph you dislike. This is a photograph taken of a rabbit with myxomatosis; it is typical of the disease, and not an exaggerated case. The main goal of this article is to educate veterinarians and rabbit owners what myxomatosis looks like. I cannot do this without photographs. As you note you did not intentionally click into this page, and are not interested in this topic. I need to keep the page informative and illustrative for those of us who are. Rabbit Vet (talk) 15:51, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
While I agree that the image should stay where it is, per WP:Readers first it is possible that you should rethink who the article is for a little. ...Then again, you got the GA, so it's probaly not anything to worry too much about. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 16:35, 31 March 2020 (UTC)
It should stay per WP:NOTCENSORED. --awkwafaba (📥) 18:43, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

This article is about the disease myxomatosis, not the virus. The cover photo should be of an infected wild rabbit. Sciencia58 (talk) 19:49, 5 November 2021 (UTC)

I don’t know how make these updates. These should be added to the Watership Down reference. 
Popular UK rock band Radiohead has a song called Myxomatosis from their 2003 release Hail to the Thief.
Douglas Adams mentions Myxomatosis in his 1979 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Jeremiah042 (talk) 13:07, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

@Jeremiah042 If necessary, we can call it "In popular culture" (all references in this article are "media"), but existing is not enough. What is needed for inclusion, is a decent source (not blog, wiki, social media etc etc) who noticed these works mentioned myxomatosis and bothered to write something about it, see the Watership Down cite in the article for comparison. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 13:20, 9 September 2022 (UTC)

Please consider incorporating material from the above draft submission into this article. Drafts are eligible for deletion after 6 months of inactivity. ~Kvng (talk) 22:21, 9 May 2025 (UTC)

An unknown number of sentences in this article are copied verbatim or near-verbatim from Stern et al. 2024 with no inline citation, e.g. the following:

Because the clinical signs of myxomatosis are distinctive and nearly pathognomonic, initial diagnosis is largely based on physical exam findings. If a rabbit dies without exhibiting the classic signs of myxomatosis, or if further confirmation is desired, a number of laboratory tests are available.
Compare with Stern et al., 2024, p. 2:

Because the clinical signs of myxomatosis are distinctive and nearly pathognomonic, initial diagnosis is largely based on physical exam findings. If classic symptoms of myxomatosis are not present before the rabbit dies, or if a definitive diagnosis is desired, confirmation of the disease can be made with laboratory testing.
For a couple of sentences, I've rewritten them, wrapped parts in quotes, and added an inline citation to the appropriate source, but there are at least some more improperly indicated/unattributed quotes; I'm not sure how many. The text of the article could use a review. These unattributed quotes must be properly attributed; see WP:PLAGIARISM.
(Upon reviewing the above guidelines, it seems there must be an in-text citation for quotes - I will add that to the parts that I changed to quotes shortly.)
@Rabbit Vet I believe you are the editor who inserted this material. Please review the above guidelines. I'd also appreciate if you could help fix these issues with the article, if possible. Thanks. --WrenFalcon (talk) 04:57, 6 July 2025 (UTC)

Paper seems to be available under CC BY-NC 4.0 per ResearchGate. Not compatible with CC BY-SA 4.0. --WrenFalcon (talk) 05:08, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
Hi WrenFalcon,
Thanks for catching that! It was not my intention to plagiarize, because I was quoting myself (i.e., I am Hilary Stern). But since people don't know that you make a good point. Thanks! Rabbit Vet (talk) 12:55, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
@Rabbit Vet If you haven't checked WP:CITESELF, perhaps you should. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 15:31, 6 July 2025 (UTC)
Thanks for making those edits. I believe that quoting yourself without proper attribution is still considered plagiarism - or in any case it's considered bad form, for a number of reasons. There's also the option of incorporating text from appropriately-licensed sources into articles; for this see WP:FREECOPY, but this is not applicable here because your paper is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0, and not under CC BY-SA 4.0 or a more permissive license (see WP:COMPLIC). --WrenFalcon (talk) 17:59, 6 July 2025 (UTC)