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Science 17 September 1999:
Vol. 285. no. 5435, p. 1842
DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5435.1842
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News Focus

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL:
Australian Biocontrol Beats Rabbits, But Not Rules

Elizabeth Finkel

MELBOURNE--To stop millions of foliage-eating introduced rabbits from turning huge tracts into desert, Australia has become the only nation to successfully use a biocontrol agent on a vertebrate, namely the European rabbit calicivirus disease. The virus appears to be a stunning success--rabbit numbers are way down and once barren deserts are blooming. Yet for biocontrol officials, the calicivirus experience has been a major embarrassment, a sobering lesson in the unpredictability of biocontrol agents.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)