Measuring on farm welfare in rabbits: A review with emphasis on animal based indicators

Based on latest definitions, animal welfare has to be referred to a life worth living, as perceived by animals, thanks to positive experiences rather than to the mere absence of negative ones. The measure of on-farm welfare of livestock is crucial to improve farming systems, to identify critical points, and to compare different farming systems in view of welfare labelling protocols. To this purpose, specie-specific protocols are necessary which should use different types of indicators, i.e. resources-based indicators, management-based indicators and, especially, animal-based indicators. These indicators should work under different farming systems and for different animal categories and can be used to assess welfare in the short term or during the productive life of the animal. Last but not least, indicators should be able to measure the affective state of animals as for positive emotions. In this scenario, rabbits are quite unique as little information is available about i) their behavioural needs under farming conditions; ii) the degree of suffering associated with the behavioural restrictions that can occur under farming conditions; iii) the indicators to be used in the very different housing and management conditions in which rabbits can be farmed; and iv) the relationships between emotions and affective states of animals as well as the effect on resiliency of rabbits under different conditions. In this context, the present review aimed at summarising the state of the art and designing a road map for assessing rabbit welfare on farm based on the most recent knowledge and approaches with special emphasis on candidate ABMs for measuring both negative and positive affective states of rabbits. The identification of positive welfare indicators is a big challenge, given the biological and behavioural characteristics of rabbits. Accordingly, a comprehensive and robust assessment of rabbit welfare on farm cannot do without structure- and management-based indicators, which should be included in validated and standardized protocols using a multi-indicator approach.