Fiona Rioja-Lang, Heather Bacon, Melanie Connor, Cathy Mary Dwyer
{"title":"Rabbit welfare: determining priority welfare issues for pet rabbits using a modified Delphi method.","authors":"Fiona Rioja-Lang, Heather Bacon, Melanie Connor, Cathy Mary Dwyer","doi":"10.1136/vetreco-2019-000363","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Rabbits are the third most popular pet in the UK, but little research into their welfare needs has been conducted.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A modified Delphi method was used to generate expert consensus on the most important welfare issues for rabbits in the UK. The study involved 11 experts, recruited from a range of disciplines. The experts generated an initial broad list of welfare issues via an online discussion board. Two rounds of online surveys were conducted to prioritise these issues. The final round was a workshop with a subsection of experts. The experts decided that welfare issues should be ranked considering: (1) severity, (2) duration, and (3) prevalence.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Experts considered that rabbits were often kept in inadequate housing, were not handled or socialised properly, were fed inappropriate diets and owners failed to vaccinate their rabbits against preventable diseases. Rabbits were thought to experience a reduced life expectancy. Lack of owner knowledge of rabbit husbandry and behaviour and, in some cases, also lack of veterinary knowledge, contributed to poor rabbit welfare.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The Delphi process resulted in consensus on the most significant welfare challenges faced by rabbits and can help guide future research and education priority decisions.</p>","PeriodicalId":23565,"journal":{"name":"Veterinary Record Open","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2019-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1136/vetreco-2019-000363","citationCount":"26","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Veterinary Record Open","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1136/vetreco-2019-000363","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2019/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"VETERINARY SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 26
Abstract
Background: Rabbits are the third most popular pet in the UK, but little research into their welfare needs has been conducted.
Methods: A modified Delphi method was used to generate expert consensus on the most important welfare issues for rabbits in the UK. The study involved 11 experts, recruited from a range of disciplines. The experts generated an initial broad list of welfare issues via an online discussion board. Two rounds of online surveys were conducted to prioritise these issues. The final round was a workshop with a subsection of experts. The experts decided that welfare issues should be ranked considering: (1) severity, (2) duration, and (3) prevalence.
Results: Experts considered that rabbits were often kept in inadequate housing, were not handled or socialised properly, were fed inappropriate diets and owners failed to vaccinate their rabbits against preventable diseases. Rabbits were thought to experience a reduced life expectancy. Lack of owner knowledge of rabbit husbandry and behaviour and, in some cases, also lack of veterinary knowledge, contributed to poor rabbit welfare.
Conclusions: The Delphi process resulted in consensus on the most significant welfare challenges faced by rabbits and can help guide future research and education priority decisions.
期刊介绍：
Veterinary Record Open is a journal dedicated to publishing specialist veterinary research across a range of topic areas including those of a more niche and specialist nature to that considered in the weekly Vet Record. Research from all disciplines of veterinary interest will be considered. It is an Open Access journal of the British Veterinary Association.
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