Welfare assessment of farmed rabbits in Italy: preliminary data of the application of the Classyfarm protocol for official veterinary controls

This study aims to illustrate the results of the first-year application of a welfare assessment protocol for farmed rabbits by official veterinarians in Italy. The protocol judges 33 evaluation elements, divided into 4 Areas (Farm management and Personnel, Facilities and Equipment, Animal Based Measures (ABMs), Major Risks and Warning Systems), as Insufficient, Acceptable and Optimal. The vet inspector could choose ‘not applicable’ if no judgment could be applied. Two hundred forty-one farms were inspected in 2023. The total number of 'Insufficient', 'Acceptable', 'Optimal' values and 'Not applicable' decisions were counted for each item. These data were combined for each area to provide aggregated results after averaging the number of Acceptable, Insufficient, and Optimal responses. From the overall results, it can be seen that most farms were given a favourable judgement in all four Areas. Farm management and Personnel had the most Acceptable responses (76.5%), Facilities and Equipment had the most Insufficient responses (1.5%) and ABMs had the most Excellent responses (41.4%). Despite the small number of ABMs judged “Insufficient”, it was possible to trace them back to an inadequate state of structural and managerial items in 6 cases. Despite some critical points, these results showed promising rabbit farming conditions in Italy and highlighted the need to increase knowledge on rabbit ABMs and their relationship with indirect indicators.