Risk factors for pre-slaughter mortality in fattening and breeding rabbits

Pre-slaughter transportation of rabbits under commercial conditions may influence their mortality, routinely recorded at the slaughterhouse as DOA (‘dead-on-arrival’ rate). The aim of this study was to identify potential risk factors for DOA, including batch size (number of rabbits loaded), season, stocking density, and transport and lairage duration. A retrospective analysis of 6411 fattening rabbit and 450 breeding rabbit batches transported in a 3-year period to a major abattoir of Northeast Italy was performed. At least one dead animal was recorded in 62% of fattening batches and 14% of breeding batches. Average DOA was 0.08% for fattening rabbits, but in transports with at least one dead rabbit the average DOA was 0.13%. For fattening rabbits, significantly increased DOAs were observed in batches with < 1201 or > 3508 rabbits, mainly during the summer, and at a stocking density higher than 29.3 kg/crate. The highest number of batches at high stocking density was found in winter (61% of all batches). Batches with high stocking density showed a higher DOA even in winter, suggesting that the reduction of space availability does not protect against low temperatures. Regarding travel duration, transports longer than 3 h increased significantly DOA by ≈ 40% compared to transports shorter than 1 h. A lairage longer than 7 h doubled the DOA compared to a lairage shorter than 2 h. The interaction between travel and lairage duration showed that a journey shorter than 1 h can significantly reduce DOA associated with a long lairage. For breeding rabbits, the average DOA in batches with at least one dead rabbit (n = 65), was 1.79%; no significant association with variables was detected.