Pododermatitis in group housed rabbit does in Switzerland—Prevalence, severity and risk factors

Ruchti, Sabrina; Meier, Andrea R.; Würbel, Hanno; Kratzer, Gilles; Gebhardt, Sabine; Hartnack, Sonja (2018). Pododermatitis in group housed rabbit does in Switzerland—Prevalence, severity and risk factors. Preventive veterinary medicine, 158, pp. 114-121. Elsevier 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2018.06.011

[img] Text
1-s2.0-S0167587718300813-main.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to registered users only
Available under License Publisher holds Copyright.

Download (1MB) | Request a copy

In rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus L.), pododermatitis is a chronic multifactorial skin disease that appears mainly on the plantar surface of the hind legs. In later stages, it causes pain leading to poor welfare of affected animals.
Pododermatitis is commonly observed in commercial rabbit production in breeding does housed with wire mesh flooring. However, the prevalence in breeding does that are housed in groups on litter and plastic slats is not
known. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate the frequency, the severity and possible risk factors of pododermatitis in group housed breeding does in Switzerland on litter and plastic slats.
Between June and September 2016 about 30% of all adult female breeding rabbits (1090 animals in total) were evaluated for the presence and the severity of pododermatitis on 17 commercial rabbit farms with group
housing. The latter was done with a tagged visual-analogue-scale. Additionally, various animal-related (e.g. hybrid, age or body weight) and environmental risk factors (e.g. temperature, relative humidity or wet area per pen) known from the literature were recorded. The risk factors were analysed with generalized linear models, additive Bayesian network (ABN) models resulting in directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) and random forests with variable importance plots.
On average, 25% of the rabbits displayed ulcerative pododermatitis likely to be painful on at least one hind leg, while the prevalence varied between farms from 4 to 49%. The age, body weight and claw-length of the animals were positively associated with pododermatitis as the most important risk factors. The best model explained 37.4% of the observed variance in the primary outcome measure for pododermatitis.
These findings demonstrate that pododermatitis is prevalent in female breeding does even in group housing systems with litter and plastic slats. However, the results of this cross-sectional study also indicate that important risk factors may have been missed or were not recorded precisely enough. Thus, more in-depth research is needed to assess risk factors of pododermatitis in view of effectively preventing the occurrence of this painful disease.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH) > Veterinary Public Health Institute > Animal Welfare Division
05 Veterinary Medicine > Research Foci > Veterinary Public Health / Herd Health Management
05 Veterinary Medicine > Department of Clinical Research and Veterinary Public Health (DCR-VPH)

UniBE Contributor:

Ruchti, Sabrina, Würbel, Hanno, Gebhardt, Sabine, Hartnack, Sonja

Subjects:

600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

0167-5877

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Lilian Karin Smith-Wirth

Date Deposited:

27 Mar 2019 10:25

Last Modified:

02 Mar 2023 23:31

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/j.prevetmed.2018.06.011

PubMed ID:

30220384

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Rabbit; Group housing; Pododermatitis; Risk factors; Bayesian networks

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.125706

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/125706

Actions (login required)

Edit item Edit item
Provide Feedback