Rabbit Production Adapting to Climate

Change - A ReviewNguyen Van Thu

Can Tho University, Vietnam

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RABBIT PRODUCTION IN TROPICAL

CLIMATE 2019 AND 4TH ARPA CONFERENCE

Aug 5 – 6, 2019 Tamarind Square Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia

1

Introduction

☻Increasing human population and climate change (caused

by GHG) in the World are interrelated (global warming)

☻ Climate change caused negative effects of food

production and human life

☻Grain production, usage issues and increasing price, and

roles of rabbit as the herbivores

☻ Rabbit with the advantages of different production

systems, efficient meat production, avoided existing

outbreaks, low pollution and GHG emissions

☻ Promising potential of rabbit adapting to climate

change for future production with a better environmental

benefit is analyzed2

Table 1. Number of undernourished people (million) in the world, 2010–2018

Year 2010 2015 2016 2017 2018*

Annual

Change, %

WORLD 822.3 785.4 796.5 811.7 821.6 -0.011

AFRICA 199.8 217.9 234.6 248.6 256.1 3.52

Sub-Saharan Africa 180.6 202.4 218.5 232.1 239.1 4.05

Eastern Africa 118.6 119.3 126.9 129.8 133.1 1.53

ASIA 572.1 518.7 512.3 512.4 513.9 -1.27

Eastern Asia 178.4 138.1 137.8 138.1 137 -2.90

Southern Asia 293.1 286.1 278.3 276.4 278.5 -0.623

L. AMER. & CARIB. 40.7 39.1 40.4 41.7 42.5 0.553

Latin America 32.6 31.5 32.9 34 34.7 0.805

South America 21.1 20.6 22.2 23.2 23.7 1.54

OCEANIA 1.9 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 4.61

NORTH AMER & EU, n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r. n.r.

Hungry people in the world and

the food and energy crisis

3

Human nutrition in the world

and the food and energy crisis

► Protein is necessary for key body functions including

(development and maintenance of muscles).

►A high demand for increased animal production and

animal products across the world

►Water is the main resource required for agriculture, but this

has been depleted

►Most fossil resources are now too deep to be economically

mined for irrigation, reducing some of the major areas of crop

production

►Animal feed mainly comes from crop byproducts, with

some competition to human beings and others, i.e., machines 4

► Greenhouse gases (GHGs) occur naturally such as water vapor,

CO2, CH4, N2O, and Ozone, while hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),

per fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

►Methane is emitted when organic decomposes, i.e., enteric

fermentation of livestock and animal wastes, and methane

emissions from production and transport of fossil fuels.

► Species extinction, seasons length changed, cause coastal

flooding, and more frequent and severe storms, have negative

effects on human activities, life and the environment, such as

agricultural production, outbreaks, and disasters (Nguyen Van

Thu, 2015) .

Greenhouse gas emissions and

climate change

5

Global CHG Emissions by Country6

Sources for CH4 production 7

8

9

10

Negative effects by sea water rise 11

12

Landslide

13

Storms

14

Floodings

15

Table 2. World livestock population (thousand) from 2013-2017

Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Annual

Change, %

Buffaloes 193,070 194,458 196,363 199,391 200,968 0.818

Cattle 1,434,769 1,442,098 1,468,146 1,488,966 1,491,687 0.793

Chickens 20,953,583 21,118,014 21,693,865 22,562,532 22,847,062 1.81

Goats 954,716 966,843 1,000,510 1,025,636 1,034,407 1.67

Pigs 976,363 985,189 986,368 978,466 967,385 -0.184

Rabbits 300,631 299,560 296,588 296,678 308,945 0.553

Source: FAOSTAT (2019) adapted by Nguyen Van Thu (2019)

Livestock production, crucial to supply animal protein human beings.

Livestock production

16

► Relationship between GHG emissions and climate change and sea

level rise has now been accepted and cannot be ignored in agriculture

► Sea level increases lead to fertile delta being removed, and weather

patterns certainly change, more intense droughts or flooding rains.

► Crop and animal production systems adapted to drought, flooding,

and saline water in Vietnam and Bangladesh.

► Grain-based animal production will become increasingly expensive,

due to competition resources for food, feed, and fuel

►Animal production based on herbivores, extensive development from

byproducts of agriculture or land not dedicated to food or biofuel

production (Leng 2008).

Climate change and livestock

production

17

Table 3. Rabbit population development of different parts of the

World (2013-2017)

Year 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Annual

change, %

World 300,631 299,560 296,588 296,678 308,945 0.54

South Latin

America 4,289 4,204 4,331 4,141 4,248 -0.19

Asia 255,813 256,107 249,276 250,378 263,082 0.55

Europe 23,414 23,256 23,361 23,199 23,039 -0.33

Africa 15,684 14,559 18,181 17,511 17,124 1.68

Source: FAOSTAT (2019) adapted by Nguyen Van Thu (2019)

World rabbit population

18

Rabbit population in representative

countries

Table 4. Rabbit population development in representative countries

of the continent (2013-2017)

Country 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

Annual

change, %

Italy 6,418 6,524 5,734 5,722 6,109 -1.01

France 825 837 871 761 679 -4.30

Brazil 210 220 215 186 179 -3.46

China 223,453 222,746 216,034 217,216 230,139 0.58

Vietnam 714 758 855 821 965 5.20

Egypt 4,597 3,448 6,495 6,165 5,600 3.58

Algeria 1,650 1,650 1,647 1,666 1,681 0.37

Nigeria 4,151 4,370 4,599 4,622 4,588 1.90

19

►More than one-third of the world’s

methane emissions to be generated by

rumen bacteria in farm animals such as

cows, sheep and goats.

►Methane is 20 times more powerful than

carbon dioxide, should be reduce this 900

billion ton annual release of methane

(Innovative News 2010).

► Non-ruminant species such as horse,

rabbit, guinea pig, also fed by forages,

they produce much less GHG emissions

due to the fiber mainly digested in the

ceacum (Nguyen Van Thu, 2015). 20

Non-ruminant

herbivores

► Climate change is increasing the incidence of viral disease among

farm animals, expanding the spread of some microbes that are also a

known risk to humans (Medicalxpress, 2009).

► Vector-borne diseases are especially susceptible to changing

environmental conditions due to the impact of temperature, humidity,

and demographics on the vectors.

► Climate change on the emergence and re-emergence of animal

diseases confirmed by a majority of the World Organization for Animal

Health (OIE) (PigProgress 2009).

► Experts agree that there is evidence that climate change explains the

recent spread of bluetongue virus observed in Europe since 1998

(Purse et al., 2005).

Animal disease outbreaks

21

CIDRAP, 2019

► Bird flu outbreaks of A

(H5N1) virus in 1997 in China

from Asia to Europe and Africa.

► In 2013, human infections

with the influenza A

(H7N9) virus were reported in

China.

► Nepal reported highly

pathogenic H5N1 outbreaks,

while Iraq reported highly

pathogenic H5N8, and

Cambodia with H7N4 in 2018.

Bird flu outbreaks

22

► African swine fever (ASF) is

a highly contagious

haemorrhagic viral disease of

domestic and wild pigs with up

to 100% case fatality rate.

► Serious economic and

production losses in China,

Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, etc.

(OIE, 2018 and FAO, 2019b).

Besides blue ear outbreak is

also a heavy loss for pigs.

African swine fever

23

Terdsak, et al., (2018) reported

During 2008–2015, a total of 140 FMD outbreaks occurred

in eight provinces of Thailand.

Outbreaks occurred on cattle and buffalo farms. In contrast,

only intensive pig farms reported.

Foot and mouth disease outbreak

in cattle, buffaloes and pigs

24

Carbon sequestration through

grass and other plants for rabbit

► Rabbit is a herbivore species, its staple

feeds are forages such as grass, legumes and

other tree leaves.

► Terrestrial sequestration is the

enhancement of CO2 uptake by soils and

plants. One hectare (2.47 Acres) of tropical

grass can capture as much as 60,000 kgs

(133,000 lbs) of CO2 /year.

► Planting grass/forages can be very

beneficial, not only capturing CO2, but also,

increasing biodiversity, decreasing

temperature, controlling erosions, improving

quality of the soil (FAO, 2010) 25

ItemTreatment

± SE/PWH0 WH20 WH40 WH60 WH80 WH100

WH intake - 7.33a 13.0b 18.3c 23.6d 19.7e 0.41/0.001

CP 8.18a 8.42ab 8.51b 8.53b 8.50b 6.81c 0.001/0.001

NDF 32.5a 32.0a 31.4ab 30.8ab 29.8b 22.4c 0.572/0.001

ME,

MJ/rabbit/d0.57ab 0.58a 0.59a 0.61a 0.60a 0.50b 0.024/0.007

DWG, g 18.9a 19.3a 19.6a 19.0a 16.2c 14.0c 0.955/0.001

FCR 3.75ab 3.68a 3.63a 3.76ab 4.37b 4.25ab 0.196/0.009

Eco return,

VND24,521 24,620 26,279 24,409 16,819 13,265

Table 5. Feed and nutrient intakes (gDM·animal-1·day-1), and growth

performance of rabbits fed different levels of water hyacinth (WH)

in a feeding trial (NV Thu ang NTK Dong, 2009)

WH: water hyacinth; WH0: basal diet; WH20, WH40, WH60, WH80 and WH100: WH replaces Para grass

at levels of 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, respectively, of the amount of Para grass consumed 26

Digestive system of rabbit

27

• Weak and thin

muscle

• 49% of digestive

tract

• DM content is

20% (200g DM

/kg)

• pH = 5.4-6.8

• More fiber intake

becomes bigger

Characteristics of ceacum

28

- Use of nitrogen source go to ceacum for

microbial protein and ammonia

- CH4 not yet produced before weaning

With ceacal microbes Without ceacal microbes

- Ammonia and true protein

- Essential AA

- VFAs, CH4, CO2 và H2

Urea, AA, peptide, N

(mucoprotein, enzymes, cell

wall)

Ceacal fermentation

29

Methanogenesis in caecum

► Rabbit is a herbivore species with

low greenhouse gas production as

compared to ruminants (Nguyen Van

Thu, 2010).

► Belenguer et al. (2011) indicated

that unlike fermentation in other

ruminant species, methanogenesis may

not be the major H2 sink in rabbit

caecal environment.

► methane formation could become

remarkable in vitro with a pH closer to

neutrality, to be favourable, supporting

the assertion that methanogenic

Archaea exist in caecal contents. 30

Methane emissions by rabbit

► Lower abundance of hydrogen-producing microbes and

methanogens, and increased homo-acetogenesis pathway in

the rabbit cecum may result in lower CH4 yield from the

rabbits.

► Ragna et al. (2011) stated that Guinea pigs produced

significantly more methane than rabbit

(0.13 ± 0.007 L/LW/d and 0.28 ± 0.11 L/LW/d), respectively.

►While in Zebu crossbred cattle, this was from 0.698 to

0.777 L/LW/d reported by Nguyen Van Thu et al. (2018).

31

Rabbit production adapting to

climate change

32

► The most countries affected by climate change are in tropical

developing countries such as Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, South Sudan,

Nigeria, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Haiti, etc.

► They have the lower incomes compared to the others. Thus the

negative effects of climate change are even more serious than we think,

particularly in livestock production for animal protein supply.

► Ume et al. (2018) stated that in Africa, small holder rabbit farmers

have devised varied adaptation coping strategies in cushioning the effects

of climate change in their rabbit farms.

► Provision of sunshade, use of fan, position of hutches, use of plastic

bottle of frozen water, use of tolerant rabbit breeds, improved nutritional

management and destocking (Okorie, 2011).

33

► To identify the adaptation strategies used by the farmers

and factors influencing their choice of adaptation strategies in

the study area, since there is paucity of such knowledge.

► Despite rabbit project successes need to be widely

replicated across in Africa continent so that smallholders can

benefit, mostly by enhancing food security and income

generation (Oseni and Lukefahr, 2014).

► In Egypt, small-scale rabbit projects targeted the more

vulnerable households (e.g. recovery programs from natural

disasters in Haiti in 2010, as reported by Kaplan-Pasternak and

Lukefahr, 2011).

Rabbit production adapting to

disasters

34

► In Vietnam with the heavy loss by the bird flu outbreaks

(H5N1) from 2006 to 2009, during this time rabbit production

quickly increased (Nguyen Van Thu, 2019), despite H5N1

virus still spread causing the bird flu disease in many

provinces of Vietnam.

► Recently because of the ASF outbreaks with serious losses

of pork production and economy, rabbit production has been

encouraged for better development by the Ministry of

Agriculture and Rural Development to supply more meat for a

compensation

Rabbit production adapting to

disease outbreaks

Rabbit and advantages of its

biological characteristics

► The rabbit, a small herbivore placed after

chicken for meat, a great source of food and

profit generation with advantages of of forage-

based diet, efficient meat production, wide

temperature range, low water consumption,

less cost production and tasty and nutritious

meat

► Rabbit production, easy to apply modernized

and automatic systems with low water

consumption, environmental pollution and

producing areas.

► Lesser serious outbreaks, except the rabbit

haemorrhagic disease under control by vaccin35

► Organic livestock farming, a useful strategy to overcome the

challenges i.e. sustainability, food security, and food safety, while

matching with consumers´ tendencies on good animal welfare,

better health, environmental benefit, etc. (Alfredo, 2015).

► Livestock provide manure for source of fertility and an

excellent means of recycling nutrients within a crop rotation

organically.

► Organic rabbit farming easy to practice due to the herbage is

the least expensive. However a better understanding of herbage

intake to adjust the size of the green forage and feed

supplementation with cereal, legume mixtures or pelleted feeds.

Opportunities for the organic

farming with safe food products

36

▄ The rabbit could successfully adapt to the climate change,

due to its ability of efficient forage utilization, high meat

performance and reproductivity, good resistance to existing

serious outbreaks, low water use and pollution, wide range of

adapting to ambient temperature, and mitigating GHG

emissions.

▄ Rabbit production systems are better adaptation to low or

high technologies and different geography areas under climate

change conditions.

▄ More studies for improving rabbit performance, ability for

adaptating and mitigating climate change and profit under

harsh conditions of climate change

Conclusions

37

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