Myxomatosis, introduced deliberately to control wild rabbit populations, causes weeks of prolonged suffering in affected individuals.
Wild rabbits infected with myxomatosis experience weeks of severe suffering including swelling around the eyes and face, blindness that prevents feeding, respiratory distress, and the distress of skin lesions. The suffering of individual rabbits was not weighed when the virus was introduced as a pest control measure. The ethical implications of deliberately releasing a pathogen causing mass suffering remain contested.