text: Easter is over for the wild rabbits of greater Sydney as councils and parks prepare another attempt to kill them off with strategically placed carrots that have been laced with a deadly virus. Public land managers are desperate to reduce the most recent 'significantly rampant population' of the pest, which causes millions of dollars of major agricultural and environmental damage each year. 'This year, because of really high summer rainfall - which led to great food availability - there has been a big surge in the rabbit population in Sydney. They are really abundant,' Graham Wilson, the manager of biosecurity at Greater Sydney Local Land Services, told Daily Mail Australia. Feral rabbits, which are deemed a pest in NSW, are liekly to br targeted with the Calicivirus, also known as Rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), in May . It comes after over 30 government bodies scattered carrots laced with calicivirus around public areas in March . 'The way we introduce the calicivirus in rabbit populations is first we chop regular carrots up and distribute them to different areas and see if they are going to eat them. 'Then, the virus is produced in a laboratory with spreading agents and its mixed with carrots - so that it's coating the carrots - and then we take them and give them to councils to put out where they want.' While rabbits under one year old have a higher chance of surviving, about 70-100 per cent of rabbits die once infected with the calicivirus, also known as rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD), which damages the animal's liver and gut and causes haemorrhaging and bleeding. The program has been implemented annually for the last nine years as a way of managing the pests and 'bringing the population back down again before damage becomes too severe,' Mr Wilson said. 'In other parts of NSW this virus spreads naturally, but you get bushland fragmented by houses and things in urban areas so we are just artificially introducing it into these places.' The feral animals compete with native wildlife for food and habitat and are believe to be responsible for the extinction of and population decline of a number of mammals. They also damage vegetation and prevent its regeneration by feasting on seedlings. About 30 public land managers and councils in Sydney, across 160 localities, scattered the infected vegetable in public areas in March, but a second smaller scale program is likely to be implemented in May across 10 areas as well as the Central Coast. 'It's just because in some areas the numbers have shown the rabbit populations haven't gone down as much as we'd like,' Mr WIlson said. Pet owners are being urged to vaccinate their domestic rabbits, but Mr Wilson assured the virus does not harm cats, dogs or humans. Rabbits were introduced to Australia by the British settlers in the First Fleet. They breed quickly, producing up to five litters of five young each year, and can be found right across Australia in various habitats . 'It's important that people who own pet rabbits vaccinate for calicivirus now to ensure that if their domestic rabbit comes in contact with the virus, which is mainly spread by contact between other rabbits and insects, they are immune.' While there are fears of immunity building in local populations, a test ahead of this year's program implementation found only 20 per cent of the local population was immune. 'This means you'd get about an 80 per cent population reduction and that makes a big difference in terms of the damage that they're doing,' Mr Wilson said. Rabbits were introduced to Australia by the British settlers with the First Fleet. They breed quickly, producing up to five litters of five young each year, and can be found right across Australia in various habitats.
target: Rabbit populations are rampant in greater Sydney due to high summer rain .
  Public land managers are now desperate to reduce population numbers due to the millions of dollars worth of damage they cause .
  Carrots laced with calicivirus are likely to be scattered in public spaces for a second time this year after an initial attempt failed in some areas .
  About 70-100% of rabbits die once infected with calicivirus, which damages the animal's liver and gut and causes haemorrhaging and bleeding .