In his article published on the MDPI portal, a group of authors from the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, State Veterinary Department (Czech Republic) and Messin University, Italy, shared his observations and conclusions about the problems in modern commercial rabbit breeding.
"Veterinary inspection of animals and their carcass on a slaughter refers to the most widely used tool of veterinary supervision and is applied longer than.
The main goal of these inspections is to identify animals whose meat and organs are not suitable for eating, and exclude them from the food chain.
However, the veterinary inspection is also of great importance from the point of view of epizootology and the health tests of agricultural animals.
To date, the potential of the veterinary inspection in identifying and reflecting the well-being of farm animals as an urgent problem is an aspect that has not been fully evaluated and remains not sufficiently used.
The fact that all food animals must undergo a veterinary inspection, makes the slaughter of the perfect place to collect comprehensive information. This gives a unique opportunity to improve observation of health risks both from the point of view of people and animals, as well as to effectively monitor the well-being of farm animals.
Indicators of well-being, which can be concluded about the physical condition of rabbits, it is much easier and more accurately monitored during a patho-marital study of a carcass than on live animals on farms.
First of all, it concerns various injuries, bruises, scratches, abscesses and dermatitis. Such data are the source of information on the conditions prevailing during the transportation of rabbits to the slaughterhouse (acute injuries) and on the farm of origin (chronic processes).
The presence of fresh injuries testifies to the level of well-being during transportation, content on the fool, stunning and the slaughter itself. Any increasing frequency and severity of such injuries testifies to unlawful behavior from the carrier or a slaughterhouse operator. A careful analysis of the nature and frequency of pathologists of discovery may be the basis for solving whether it is necessary to apply corrective measures and from which such concrete measures will be.
Despite the fact that inspection reports (especially the reports on pathological surveys) provide a large amount of information, the systematic use of this potential is still not carried out in most countries.
Scientific literature is also relatively scarce in terms of collecting and analyzing data relating to pathological finds in rabbits killed on the slaughterhouse.
An exception from the point of view of the volume can be called a long-term Polish study, which states that 0.48% of all the carbars studied on Polish slaughterhouses in 2010-2018 were recognized as unsuitable for eating. The most frequent reasons are sepsis and peymain, alliance, the disease of the upper respiratory tract, coccidiosis. The incidence of coccidiosis and other parasitic diseases for the studied period decreased, although an increase in the number of cases of sepsis was observed.
Studies on the health monitoring of rabbits on farms show that rabbits usually have two major health problems: respiratory syndrome (mainly in adults) and digestive syndrome (more often in young rabbits). Diseases of the digestive tract - the common cause of death.
For example, the widespread pathogenic bacterium closeridium perfringens is a frequent causative agent of intestinal diseases on rabbit farms. Other pathological processes affecting rabbits in industrial enterprises include subcutaneous abscesses, gastrointestinal parasitosis, alopecia and nephritis (causative agents of Toxoplasma Gondii and Encephalitozoon CUNICULI).
This study was aimed at assessing the characteristic results of the veterinary inspection of rabbits killed on slaughterhouses in the Czech Republic in the period from 2010 to 2019, in accordance with their localization and nature of damage, as well as to assess the level of health and well-being of rabbits grown on the farm on the basis of These conclusions.
The largest Czech enterprise produces 130,000 rabbits annually
The health and well-being of rabbits grown on farms were studied based on 1,876,929 rabbits scored for nine slaughters in the Czech Republic in the period from 2010 to 2019.
Rabbits were enrolled with 80 farms, of which one enterprise supplied more than 50% of the total production of rabbits in the Czech Republic, that is, about 130,000 rabbits annually.
Production Another 19 farmers ranges from 1000 to 10,000 rabbits per year, the annual production of another 21 farmer is from 100 to 1000 rabbits, while 39 small farmers supply up to 100 rabbits per year.
On farms, rabbits contained in cells and fed granules. Transportation to the slaughterhouse was carried out by authorized carriers by road using transport containers and trucks, specially designed and allowed for the transport of rabbits.
Most rabbits (88%) were transported at a distance of less than 300 km (63% of rabbits for a distance less than 100 km), and no trip did not exceed eight hours. At all the slaughterings of rabbits stunned electric stunning only on the head.
The overall health level of rabbits scored on slaughterhouses was controlled on the basis of calculating the ratio of the number of pathologies detected to the number of rabbits scored on slaughterhouses. Data on the results of veterinary inspections after slaughter conducted in Czech slaughterhouses were obtained retrospectively from the information system of the State Veterinary Department of the Czech Republic.
The ratio of the number of pathologies detected to the total number of rabbits scored on the slaughterhouse was 0.0214. This means that 1 hundred rabbits accounted for 2.14 results, documenting the deterioration of health and / or well-being, leading to pathological changes detected during the pathoanatomic inspection on the slaughter.
Interestingly, the highest mortality rate associated with transport was found in broiler chickens (0.37%) and rabbits (0.19%), with lower mortality rates in pigs (0.07%), cattle (0.02%), ducks (0.08%) and turkeys (0.15%).
These results show that broiler chickens and rabbits with impaired health status die during transportation to the slaughterhouse much more often than other species, or, in other words, transportation survive mostly animals in good condition.
Therefore, they are then clogged with healthy animals, as evidenced by a small amount of pathological data obtained after slaughter on the slaughterhouse, compared with other types of meat animals.
The rabbit is an extremely sensitive animal, which is evidenced by a high mortality rate during transportation, as well as relatively high mortality on farms, especially in the period after the selection.
A quarter of young rabbits die still during fatteningThe short life expectancy of rabbits (fattening is completed before the effect of cultivation conditions will manifest itself in changes in organs) and high mortality in growing and transporting (elimination of individuals with impaired health status) are reflected by statistics collected on slaughterhouses.
Nevertheless, despite the relatively small number of pathological finds made by rabbits during the inspection on the slaughterhouse, you can identify certain categories of findings that have a higher frequency and indicate a particular deterioration in health and well-being during cultivation or transportation.
Finds on the body and limbs were most frequent, and almost exclusively traumatic changes, which is undesirable in terms of animal protection.
The cause of the animal husbandry, which causes, in particular, the injuries of the limbs, as well as the method of catching rabbits and placing them into transport containers before transportation and the method of unloading rabbits from transport containers on a slaughter, during which injuries, bruises, dislocations and fractures arise.
Wire floors - a frequent cause of injury and diseases (pararacratosis, subwenmatitis), so it is advisable to close, at least, mats.
The high density of landing, leading to the increased aggressiveness of rabbits, is definitely undesirable.
Inappropriate cell sizes limit the possibilities for movement and natural activity and poses, which leads to an abnormal development of a rabbit skeleton (bone deformations, bone hypoplasia).
Equipment of cells or fuses of enrichment functions (chewing sticks, sublime platforms, tunnels, branches) has a 100% positive effect, since the elements make a significant contribution to the reduction of stress and act to prevent aggressive behavior and behavioral anomalies, such as cell discharge.
Rabbits, which were given alternative housing (less landing density, floor with plastic lattices), had a smaller frequency of injuries.
Animal treatment during loading and unloading in itself is a risk factor in terms of injury and mortality. The risk increases with large batches, since the staff becomes smaller when handling a large number of animals.
Pathological finds were found in the kidneys and liver when examining internal organs: almost exclusive chronic manifestations in the kidneys (99.9%). Chronic changes in the kidneys and liver are probably caused by the imbalance of the diet with respect to the needs of certain animals during intensive fattening.
On the proper functioning of the digestive system and, consequently, the entire body affects not only the composition of the diet and the corresponding ratio of nutrients, but also the amount of feed obtained, the method of treatment of feed, as well as the structure and size of its individual particles.
The research results show that the decrease in the content of starch and protein in favor of fiber has a beneficial effect on the digestion and fermentation process in appendix.
The prevention of digestive problems and the subsequent metabolic disorder and damage to the organs is the proper composition of the diet: a higher content of digestible and unsecured fiber (raw fiber 14-18%), lower starch content (less than 14%) and protein (15-16% ), the addition of suitable plant additives is recommended.
Also found multiple abscesses (84.5%) and alliance (14.9%).
Subcutaneous abscesses - a frequent problem on commercial rabbit farms. They can be localized in rabbits throughout the body, but usually appear on the hind limbs and in the neck area. As a rule, arise as a result of infection of injuries obtained during the fattening process as a result of a mutual bite or fight between rabbits living together.
As for exhaustion, there are many reasons that are associated with some other pathological conditions, such as respiratory tract infections, gastroenteritis, jade, coccidiosis of the liver and intestines. Exhaustion can also be the result of competitive relationship related to the access to the feed during cultivation that does not allow certain individuals to obtain a sufficient amount of nutrients.
Therefore, these are actual problems requiring solutions at the level of modification of content and hygiene on rabbit farms. "
(Source: www.mdpi.com. Authors: Lenka Valkova, Vladimir Veyrek, Eva Relaist, Veronika Zarlelova, Francesca Conte, Zubynek sederad).