Trends in the premature death of pet rabbits

Abstract

Among rabbits kept as pets, there is a high level of mortality at a young age. To gain insight into the causes of premature death of pet rabbits and the factors that play a role and might be welfare related, in this study the aim is to determine an overview of the causes of death in early deceased rabbits.

Therefore, using the data from VPDC Utrecht of necropsies on pet rabbits (age 6 to 36 months) from the period ‘93-‘09 and the data of necropsies on pet rabbits in the period ‘09-‘10, the causes of death of respectively 143 and 10 pet rabbits were identified.

A notable trend is that the largest share (61,1%) of causes of premature death is caused by infectious agents. Non-infectious disorders and diseases of unknown etiology amount respectively 18,2% and 14,7%. Further analysis of the causes of death shows that Viral heamorrhagic disease (VHD), Pasteurella multocida and bacterial sepsis, unspecified on the latter, are the three most common causes of death at a young age, resp. 35,5%; 14, 0% and 7,0%.

With respect to the overall population of pet rabbits and the causes of premature death, the image is probably distorted by a selective population of animals within this study, whereby a large number of animals is characterized by sudden death. Other factors such as euthanasia don’t seem to have any direct effect.