Hares could be wiped out, experts warn, as a spate in mystery deaths has sparked fears that a highly infectious disease has “jumped” from rabbits.

David Wembridge, Peoples Trust for Endangered Species Survey Officer, warned the animals could be virtually eradicated in a couple of years if Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease (RHD) or Myxomatosis spreads to non-resistant hares for the first time.

Myxomatosis first reached the UK in 1953 after it was introduced as a control measure in Kent, but inadvertently resulted in the deaths of 99 percent of the rabbit population only three years later.

There are now renewed concerns the potentially fatal viral disease, caused by blood sucking insects, is behind the mysterious surge in the recent deaths of hares in Suffolk and Norfolk.

Mr Wembridge said: “It is not thought that hunting has a big effect on the population, but the hare population is not so robust that it would be able to take a really big loss in numbers- the disease in rabbits nearly wiped out their population in the 1950s . Until resistance spread in rabbits it had a major impact on them.

“If a contagious disease agent has spread to hares for the first time then they will not have any resistance, and it could be that a very large proportion -over 90%- of the population will be killed as was in the case of rabbits. The rabbits were gone in a matter of a couple of years.”