Descriptive analysis of the environmental impact of intensive rabbit production

Abstract

[EN] This descriptive literature review presents some elements that allow us to quantify the main contributions of rabbit farming to global warming, pollution (mostly nitrogen losses, airborne particulate matter), water footprint and biodiversity loss. As the majority of meat rabbits farmed in the world are raised in indoor cage systems, most studies only cover this production system. A single attempt has been made to quantify the environmental impact of an alternative system, based on rabbits grazing under photovoltaic panels. Although it provides some insights into possible alternatives, the results obtained are not based on real data. Regarding the contribution of rabbit production to global warming, the estimations of greenhouse gas emissions ranged from 3.13 to 3.25 kg of CO2 eq. per growing rabbit over a 35-d period. No estimates are available for the whole system (all animal categories). Pollution associated with nitrogen losses varied between 40.1 and 59.1 g of N per kg of liveweight gain. Air pollution related to the airborne particulate matter (10 micron) varied from 0.082 to 0.045 mg per m3, and there was no data available on the water footprint, which is likely to be between those observed for poultry and pig production. For biodiversity loss, there are no studies on the impact of rabbit production on wild life. This communication ends with a brief discussion of the possible alternatives and presents some technical perspectives for the rabbit sector.