Shepherd R C, Edmonds J W
J Hyg (Lond). 1978 Dec;81(3):399-403. doi: 10.1017/s0022172400025286.
Outbreaks of myxomatosis during the winter or spring have coincided with the establishment of the European rabbit flea in the Mallee region. The severity of these outbreaks has varied from causing complete suppression of the normal spring increase in rabbit numbers to being completely ineffective in a year in which late spring rains allowed rabbit breeding to extend into the early summer.In 1973 and 1974 effective spring myxomatosis caused heavy mortality in kittens before they emerged from the warrens. The age of the population increased as the result of few young rabbits coming into the population and of the lessened stress on old rabbits in a low summer-autumn population. This effect was reversed in the late-breeding year, 1976, when flea numbers were apparently too low to maintain a spring outbreak and rabbit numbers increased rapidly.
冬季或春季黏液瘤病的爆发与欧洲兔蚤在马勒地区的出现恰好同时发生。这些疫情的严重程度各不相同，从导致兔子数量在春季正常增长完全受到抑制，到在晚春降雨使兔子繁殖期延长至初夏的年份完全无效。1973年和1974年，春季有效的黏液瘤病在幼兔从洞穴中出来之前就造成了大量死亡。由于幼兔进入种群数量减少，以及在夏末秋初种群数量较低时老年兔子所受压力减轻，种群年龄有所增加。在繁殖较晚的1976年，这种情况发生了逆转，当时跳蚤数量显然过低，无法引发春季疫情，兔子数量迅速增加。
