Adjusting the age pyramid to promote a more sustainable and healthful rabbit production system

Abstract

On average, a commercial rabbit female currently has no more than six litters her entire life, leading to a young age-structure. Because the investment in maintenance that prolongs lifespan trades-off with early reproductive effort, a more sustainable and healthful rabbit-production system would increase the proportion of females with more than six litters. The arguments for this suggestion are based in parts of life-history theory that have been experimentally confirmed in other organisms. Here we explore the effect on the age- structure of arbitrarily lowering the overall culling rate of a typical commercial population by 25 points of percentage (from 191 to 138 females culled). When we assumed a lower culling rate, we found that the age- structure of this commercial population would change to a more balanced proportion of mature (i.e.females having six or more litters) and young females. The new-age structure would improve adaptation to local conditions, favor health and robustness, and lengthen potential lifespan