Rabbit Meat—Production, Consumption and Consumers’ Attitudes and Behavior

Abstract

Rabbit meat could play an important role in health, the rural economy, and sustainable development. Rabbit meat has excellent nutritional features, such as high protein content, low-fat content, and a high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids, low cholesterol and sodium levels. In addition, rabbit meat production contributes to maintaining economic activities in rural marginal areas. However, the consumption of rabbit meat is still limited due to several factors such as the higher cost of commercial food that is slowing down rabbits’ breeding. Socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes, and nationality of consumers influence the demand and consumption of rabbit meat. The social and economic changes of the past years are leading to an increased interest in rabbit meat products with convenience characteristics. Consumers are also increasingly paying attention to animal husbandry methods for health concerns and ethical reasons. This paper presents an overview of rabbit meat focusing on production, nutritional composition, consumers’ preferences, and marketing. The review proposes strategies that, coupled with information campaigns could improve consumers’ knowledge of the positive characteristics of rabbit meat, which would contribute to the market development.

Social, ethical, environmental, economic and technological aspects of rabbit meat production - A critical review

“…Nowadays RM consumption is limited by consumers concern towards environmental issues and animal welfare [ 18 ]. Moreover, animal welfare is now widely recognized as a source of competitive advantage for RM producers [ 6 ]. However, animal welfare is largely ignored in sustainability reporting and that business sustainability often trumps wider concerns about environmental sustainability, although there are many reports that improvements in animal welfare can make important contributions to sustainable development in RM production [ 19 , 20 ].…”

“…The ethical considerations of eating rabbit are complex and multifaceted. From an animal welfare perspective, rabbits are intelligent and social animals, and their needs must be taken into account when considering their consumption [ 6 ]. However, the ethical issue does not affect the production of RM on the Asian continent and therefore the global production of RM has been steadily increasing from 2010 to 2018 [ 7 ].…”

Long-read sequencing-based transcriptomic landscape in longissimus dorsi and transcriptome-wide association studies for growth traits of meat rabbits

“…Rabbits are mainly raised in China, North Korea, and some European countries for providing meat, wool, fur, as well as the laboratory animal. Rabbit meat is characterized by excellent nutritional characteristics, such as high protein content, high percentage of unsaturated fatty acids, high content of essential amino acids, low fat content, and low cholesterol and sodium level ( 2 , 3 ). On the other hand, rabbits, as well as other herbivorous livestock, can efficiently utilize plant fiber fractions that are indigestible to human ( 4 ).…”

Transcriptome analysis of divergent residual feed intake phenotypes in the M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum of Wannan Yellow rabbits

“…Rabbit meat is considered an excellent nutritional source owing to its high protein and low fat contents, high proportion of unsaturated fatty acids, and low cholesterol and sodium levels ( Siddiqui et al, 2023 ). Feed cost accounts for 60% of total rabbit breeding costs and is therefore an important factor affecting overall rabbit production costs ( Molette et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Currently, indigenous rabbit farming for meat consumption is primarily conducted in rural areas. This provides economic opportunities for farmers and favorably impacts population maintenance in marginal areas ( Siddiqui et al, 2023 ). Strategies to improve feed efficiency are essential for increasing the competitiveness of the rabbit breeding industry.…”