The Dutch Rabbit as an Experimental Animal

Abstract

Rabbits of the Dutch strain were bred at the Nippon Merck-Banyu Research Laboratories, and some of their characteristics were compared with those of the Japanese White rabbit, which has been generally used in biomedical experiments in Japan. It was observed that the Dutch had the following advantages
1) Easy to handle for their small size andtameness.
2) Economical for their small food consumption (about a half of that of the Japanese white) .
3) Highly reproductive (the conception rate, 92%; the average litter size, 6.8; the mortality by the weaning, 24%) .
However, they seemed to be more susceptible to coccidiosis than the Japanese White.