Respiratory disorders of farmed rabbits: occurrence and risk factors
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Author
Rosell, Joan M.
de la Fuente, L. Fernando
Fernández de Luco, Daniel
Arnal, M. Cruz
Casal, Jordi
Fernández, Xosé M.
Pinto de Carvalho, André
Publication date
2023-09-28ISSN
1257-5011
Abstract
In this study, we focused on the occurrence of respiratory disorders in rabbit farms, as well as
several risk factors. We based the assessment on 11 217 visits to 1288 commercial farms in Spain and
Portugal from 1996 to 2020. There was a sub-set of 307 visits due to respiratory system issues on 172 farms;
the main causes were high prevalence of rhinitis in does and high mortality risk in weaned rabbits. During the
25-yr observational study, we physically examined 29 000 males and 200000 lactating does to monitor their
sanitary status on 894 farms. The mean annual prevalence of clinical rhinitis (CR) and 95% binomial confidence
interval (CI) in does was 19.9% (95% CI [19.7-20.1%]). We observed an improvement as prevalence of annual
CR fell from 29.6% in 1996 to 15.2% in 2020. The main risk factor for rhinitis was the rabbit line, followed by
gender (males become sick more than females) and age of females. The median age of farmed does was
5 parities (minimum to maximum: 1-39). The enabling risk factors were year, season (more often affected
in summer) and service timing (lowest prevalence when does were served ≥32 d postpartum). In a sub-set
of 208 farms, we determined the prevalence of apparent atrophic rhinitis, which was 0.04% in females and
0.11% in males. Concerning bacteriological studies with 444 samples from 153 farms, Pasteurella multocida
and Staphylococcus aureus were the main agents isolated from cases of pneumonia, rhinitis and other
issues. We may infer that much work is required to determine in greater detail the factors linked to the farm
environment and apply this knowledge in practice.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
619 - Veterinary science
Pages
15
Publisher
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Is part of
World Rabbit Science
Citation
Rosell, J. M., L. Fernando De La Fuente, J. Ignacio Badiola, Ana Pérez De Rozas, Daniel Fernández De Luco, María Cruz Arnal, Jordi Domènech Casal, Xosé M. Fernández, and André Carvalho. 2023. “Respiratory Disorders of Farmed Rabbits: Occurrence and Risk Factors.” World Rabbit Science 31 (3): 147–61. doi:10.4995/wrs.2023.18280.
Program
Sanitat Animal
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2555]
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/