myxomatosis

A usually fatal viral disease of rabbits, causing skin tumors.

In addition to new diseases, Quammen touches on many of the examples often included in standard disease ecology or epidemiology courses—for example, myxomatosis in nonnative rabbits of Australia, and mutation rates in RNA versus DNA viruses.

“A lot of factors have contributed to the rabbit population explosion: there was the pandemic, when no one could hunt for two years; they’ve become immune to myxomatosis; and the female can produce seven or eight offspring every two months,” Foix says.

A condition characterized by the growth of many myxomata (tumors of primitive connective tissue).