Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease Virus has been released deliberately in Australia and New Zealand as a biocontrol agent, raising difficult welfare questions about using lethal disease for population management.
Biocontrol of feral rabbits through RHDV raises profound welfare questions. The disease causes acute suffering to millions of individual animals, even if rapid death follows. The justification is ecological — reducing damage to native vegetation and prey availability for other species. Whether this welfare cost is justified by the ecological benefit is a genuine ethical question without an obvious answer. The welfare of other wild animals harmed by rabbit overabundance must be weighed against the suffering of rabbits affected by biocontrol.