Study of Some Biochemical and Molecular Biological Markers for early detection of diarrhea in rabbits

During the recent years, a great interest has beenraised in diarrhea in weanling rabbits, as this conditionresponsible for major losses in commercial rabbitries.The importance of rabbit meat as a source of food forhuman consumption is well established long time ago.However, over the last years its nutritious value is wellunderstood by consumers, especially after the last food”scandals” that affected other sectors of animal originfood production. Rabbit meat belongs to white ones, thusit is a particularly healthy animal origin protein sourcethat makes it the consumers’ first option.The incidence of digestive system’s problems ishigh in rabbits. Among them enteritis comes first, as itrepresents almost 80% of the digestive system diseasesand this is one of the main reasons behind thedeterioration of the enterprises that deal with theintensive production of rabbit meat. Intestinaldisturbances in rabbits are characterized by theoccurrence of watery feces or diarrhea. Young weanedrabbits aged between 4 to 10 weeks appear to be moreprone to this problem than older adult rabbits. It rarelyoccurs in new-born rabbits, probably due to the milk ofthe doe which has anti-bacterial properties.