在澳大利亚定居初期，富有进取心的移民轻率地引入了欧洲兔。
In the early days of the settlement of Australia, enterprising settlers unwisely introduced the European rabbit.
这种兔子在澳洲没有天敌，因此以兔子特有的那种肆无忌惮的泛滥方式大量繁殖。
This rabbit had no natural enemies in the Antipodes, so that it multiplied with that promiscuous abandon characteristic of rabbits.
它横扫了整个大陆。
It overran a whole continent.
它通过掘穴打洞、啃食草木而造成了巨大破坏——那些草木原本足以养活数百万头绵羊和牛。
It caused devastation by burrowing and by devouring the herbage which might have maintained millions of sheep and cattle.
科学家们发现，这种特定品种的兔子（而且显然没有其他任何动物）对一种致命的病毒性疾病——兔黏液瘤病——具有易感性。
Scientists discovered that this particular variety of rabbit (and apparently no other animal) was susceptible to a fatal virus disease, myxomatosis.
通过感染动物并将其放入兔子的洞穴，可以制造这种疾病的局部流行。
By infecting animals and letting them loose in the burrows, local epidemics of this disease could be created.
后来发现，有一种蚊子充当了这种疾病的传播媒介，并将病毒传染给了兔子。
Later it was found that there was a type of mosquito which acted as the carrier of this disease and passed it on to the rabbits.
于是，在世界其他地方正竭力消灭蚊子的时候，澳大利亚却在鼓励这种蚊子（繁殖）。
So while the rest of the world was trying to get rid of mosquitoes, Australia was encouraging this one.
它（蚊子）有效地将疾病传播到了整个大陆，并大幅减少了兔子的数量。
It effectively spread the disease all over the continent and drastically reduced the rabbit population.
后来逐渐发现，兔子正在对这种疾病产生一定程度的抵抗力，因此兔子数量不太可能被完全消灭。
It later became apparent that rabbits were developing a degree of resistance to this disease, so that the rabbit population was unlikely to be completely exterminated.
然而，人们仍抱有希望，认为兔子问题将会变得可以控制。
There were hopes, however, that the problem of the rabbit would become manageable.
具有讽刺意味的是，欧洲——正是它把兔子作为害兽输出给了澳大利亚——反而获得了这种人造疾病，将其作为一场瘟疫。
Ironically, Europe, which had bequeathed the rabbit as a pest to Australia, acquired this man-made disease as a pestilence.
一位法国医生决定消灭自己庄园里的野兔，于是引入了兔黏液瘤病毒。
A French physician decided to get rid of the wild rabbits on his own estate and introduced myxomatosis.
然而，疾病并没有局限在这座庄园的范围之内。
It did not, however, remain within the confines of this estate.
疾病蔓延至法国——那里的野兔通常不被视为害虫，而是被视为猎物和有用的食物来源——并扩散至英国，英国的野兔虽被视为害虫，但驯养兔对这种疾病同样易感，而驯养兔是英国获利颇丰的毛皮业的基础。
It spread through France, where wild rabbits are not generally regarded as a pest but as a sport and a useful food supply, and it spread to Britain where wild rabbits are regarded as a pest but where domesticated rabbits, equally susceptible to the disease, are the basis of a profitable fur industry.
问题变成了：人类是否能够控制他自己发明的这种疾病。
The question became one of whether Man could control the disease he had invented.