The economic benefits of rabbit control in Australian temperate pastures by the introduction of rabbit haemorrhagic disease

The European rabbit is present in most Australian environments and causes economic loss in agricultural systems by reducing production and imposing control costs on producers and governments. Research into rabbit control has recognised the need for reliable benefit-cost analysis to justify inputs into rabbit management. This paper provides estimates of the costs of rabbits in Australian temperate pasture systems and of the longterm benefits of reducing rabbits by the introduction of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD). Rabbits impose annual costs on wool producers in the temperate pasture areas of between 7.1 and 38.7 million Australian dollars (mA$) depending on their density. Controlling rabbits by RHD has the potential to generate substantial long-term economic benefits by reducing grazing competition with sheep. Reducing rabbit costs by 25% generated 15-year net present values (NPVs) between 18.4 and 97.3 mA$ at various pre-RHD rabbit densities. A 50% reduction in rabbit costs increased the total NPVs between 36.9 and 202.4 mA$, virtually all of which was captured by temperate area wool producers. The corresponding benefit–cost ratios were between 2.9:1 and 16.2:1 for a 25% rabbit reduction and 5.9:1 and 32.4:1 for a 50% reduction, where the total costs of the RHD program in the temperate pasture areas were incurred by the wool industry. The analysis provides guidelines for the economic evaluation of other pest problems in agricultural production systems.