Welfare issues in causes of death in young pet rabbits

Abstract

There is a high level of mortality at a relatively young age in pet rabbits. To gain insight in the causes of premature death in pet rabbits, this study aims to give an overview of these causes of death and possibly related welfare issues. In order to do so, data from the VPDC Utrecht of necropsies on pet rabbits which died at an age of 2-36 months performed from 1993 until October 2009, were used for retrospective research. Also, data of necropsies on pet rabbits which died at an age of 2-36 months performed from October 2009 until December 31st 2011 were collected and compared to those of the retrospective research. This resulted in information on causes of death of 234 and 78 pet rabbits respectively. Striking was that most deaths of the rabbits in this study were caused by infectious agents (71,2%). Non infectious causes and diseases with unknown etiology made up 12,8% and 16,0% of all deaths respectively. Further breakdown showed that in the retrospective research VHD, P. multocida and Eimeria spp were the most occurring causes of premature death. In the welfare project E. cuniculi, unknown cause of death and pneumonia (etiology undefined) were the most important death causes. The three most important infectious agents in the welfare project were E. cuniculi, Eimeria spp and P. multocida.