[1] The spread of the vira lead to a plague of myxomatosis that caused the collapse of rabbit populations throughout much of Europe and beyond in the 1950s.

During the First World War he carried out important work on malaria,[3] for which he was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour.

[4] He used a strain of the virus, which had been isolated in 1949 and believed that the enclosed nature of the estate would prevent its spread into other rabbit populations.

However, within four months it became clear that the virus had escaped from his estate, the corpse of an infected rabbit having been found 50 km (30 miles) away.

However, he was later honored; in June 1956 he was awarded a gold medal to commemorate his achievement by Bernard Dufay, honorary director-general of the French Department of Rivers and Forests.