He and fellow researchers famously injected themselves with the myxomatosis virus to show it would not harm humans while devastating rabbit populations.
The myxomatosis virus was illegally imported and illegally released but it had little lasting effect upon the rabbit population other than to make it more resistant to the virus.
Rabbits used to play a part but due to the onset of myxomatosis their numbers decreased so dramatically that they no longer have much of a grazing effect.