RABBIT PRODUCTION SCIENCE & MANAGEMENT

The importance of the domestic rabbit as a supplier of meat for human consumption is widely recognised throughout the world. In large scale commercial farming where rabbit production has been practised for many years the standards of husbandry has been raised. The successful rabbit farms in the tropics and sub-tropics vary in size from the large commercial rabbitries to small backyard rabbitries. Apart from being a good source of meat, rabbits provide useful skins, manure and, with some breeds wool. The rabbit has several points in its favour as a meat producer, hence most of the countries in the tropics and sub-tropics need to produce more meat in order to supply their rising population with animal protein. One of the health benefits of rabbit meat is its low fat content even compared to other types of white meat. One the other hand, rabbit production is one of the means by which the nutrition and the incomes of most urban and rural dwellers with limited access to land.