Now a PhD candidate at the Centre for the Study of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CSAFE) at the University of Otago, Mr McKay has expressed concerns about the consumption of rabbits infected with rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD).
Before the illegal introduction of RHD in 1997, Mr McKay regularly ate rabbit, but had stopped since the virus had arrived.
He had grown up accustomed to the skin and contents of a rabbit, after being shot, being gone the next day "or at least to have a hawk dining on the spoil within a short time" but that was not happening when RHD was present, he said.
When a strain of RHD was ravaging the rabbit population, dead rabbits, unmarked and in apparently "healthy" condition and in relaxed positions of very sudden, unexpected death, were in the open or under bushes, lying untouched.
Hawks did not touch the carcasses, nor did cats, ferrets, hedgehogs or other animal scavengers.
From what he had observed, rabbits appeared "happy and healthy" even when afflicted with the disease.
He believed there was some "wrongness' about RHD-killed rabbits that scavenging and meat-eating animals sensed and avoided, and he believed that behaviour was significant.
Given the burgeoning businesses harvesting rabbits for sale for consumption and export, he suggested there was strong need for research to understand why meat-eating animals appeared to shun RHD-infected food sources, in case there was a consequence of consumption by humans or pets.
He believed it was prudent to "take heed and proceed with caution".
"Nature is telling us `don't eat'. It's common sense really."
When contacted, a Ministry for Primary Industries spokesperson said national and international research had been done on whether or not humans could be affected by rabbit calicivirus.
Laboratories in many countries confirmed human infection with RHD was not known to occur and that no ill effects had been seen, even in people working closely with the virus.
The virus had been present in more than 40 countries, including most of Europe, since the 1980s, and there had been no scientific or medical reports of human infection from any of those countries.
There was no evidence found the RHD virus could infect any species other than the European rabbit.
MPI recommended people should never eat meat from a sick animal, although, if an animal infected with RHD was killed and eaten before it showed any signs of sickness, the virus would have no effect on humans.
All wild rabbits processed commercially for human food or for pet food must be processed in premises which operate a registered risk management programme under the Animal Products Act 1999.