PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK
FEED ADDITIVES ▶▶▶
Boosting rabbit farming productivity and profits
Rabbit farming is forecast to grow rapidly, since rabbits are well known as a quick-breeding source of low-fat, high-protein meat. However, reducing the sector’s impact on antimicrobial resistance is a major challenge.
BY MOHAMED MAMMERI, PHD, GLOBAL PRODUCT MANAGER & HÉLOÏSE LEGEN- DRE, PHD, R&D EFFICACY DATA MANAGER, PHILEO BY LESAFFRE
A
lready important as a valuable source of meat, rabbit farming is forecast to continue its growth in response to the growing food needs of the world’s expanding population. While China is currently
considered to be the leading producer of rabbit meat, the fu- ture expansion in global output will be based on improved breeding selection, technological advances, including meat processing, and increased government support. The main producing countries in the EU are Italy, Spain, France and Ger- many, while Venezuela and Egypt are the main producing countries in Latin America and Africa.
Challenges facing rabbit farmers Rabbit farmers have always been ready and willing to adapt to the various challenges involved in achieving effective meat production, coping with such issues as high mortality levels in kits (baby rabbits) and negative energy balance concerns in relation to does (female rabbits). Producers are also keenly aware of the need to achieve good results within a breeding and rearing environment, with minimal expenditure on main- taining health and a constant awareness of the need to re- duce the sector’s impact on antimicrobial resistance. Inten- sive breeding processes, poor feeding regimes and degraded sanitary conditions are all sources of stress in rabbit farming, which can cause dysbacteriosis and immunodeficiency. As a result, the natural resistance of farmed rabbits can be im- paired, leading to an inevitable rise in the incidence of disease within production units. Potential knock-on impacts include impaired digestion and metabolism and the
12 ▶ ALL ABOUT FEED | Volume 28, No. 6, 2020
appearance of intestinal infections, leading in turn to reduced productivity and increased levels of mortality.
Antimicrobial resistance in rabbit farming Addressing the need to reduce the use of antibiotics in farm- ing is clearly a global concern which applies to all food animal species. Rabbit farming’s central place in the current debate, meanwhile, reflects the species’ position as one of the world’s most medicated livestock sectors. For example, a recent farm- based study carried out in China, focusing on diarrhoeic rab- bits, revealed that 78.2% of the E. coli isolates found in the study population were resistant to tetracycline. The same study found resistance to ampicillin in 65.5% of the animals. Another study that was carried out on rabbit farms in Spain revealed that E. coli isolates were resistant to doxycycline (89.3%), to amoxicillin (16.1%), gentamicin (2.9%), and enro- floxacin (4.2%). Both of these results, viewed against the background of the world’s need to maintain the effectiveness of antibiotics in treating humans, highlight the urgent re- quirement for rabbit farmers to continue reducing their use of antibiotics. Many countries have, of course, already banned the use of an- tibiotics in farming, including growth promotors, forcing ani- mal nutritionists to seek alternative ways to protect the
Figure 1 - Total weight of rabbit at the end of the fattening period.
2320 2340 2360 2380 2400 2420 2440 2460 2480
2300 Control * p<0.05 Actisaf® SC 47
2460 *
2359
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