Respiratory disorders of farmed rabbits: occurrence and risk factors

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 200 000 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.