Technological recommendations in rabbit production some factors of housing conditions

Abstract

In the last ten years a number of research were done and articles were published in order to improve or change the housing conditions of rabbits. These studies focus on the customer needs and changes in expectations based usually on animal welfare. During farm visits we found that the housing circumstances among those factors which are emphasized individually or jointly appeared in the everyday life of rabbit farming (for example: optimal micro-climate, cage floor space, type of floor, keeping mode, environmental enrichment, etc.). In our work we tried to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each procedure. In many cases it is difficult to create perfect coherence with the ideas of animal rights, animal needs and economic interests of the farmers. The number of results and ideas for implementation of all the correct procedures is so great that it is certainly impossible to keep them a time and place in a single technology. Of course, if the changes are generated by the consumer demands, then the farmer has to adapt to expectations in order to keep the market (and sometimes ignoring some other aspects).