Question: what's your opinion on the fact that myxomatosis was a manufactured disease?

Sarah Ashwood answered on 12 Nov 2014:

Well I can’t say I know much about it, but from what I understand myxomatosis was introduced into Australia initially as a tool for controlling rabbit population. At the time the ramifications weren’t really considered as it wasn’t known that it could be spread by fleas etc. so it became more widespread than they were expecting.
In terms of my opinion on it, I think scientists have to take responsibility with what they put out into the public – something like that would be unlikely to occur now as there are such strict controls about what exposure to chemicals/disease is allowed and you need to make absolutely sure that there wouldn’t be any negative impact.