Incidence of visual signs of bacterial infection and mortality, from causes related to bacterial infection, were recorded on a weekly basis in growing meat rabbits from 5 to 10 weeks of age

Improving the genetic resistance of rabbits to bacterial infection has advantages; in Europe, improving rabbit health and survival by breeding for disease resistance is a more sustainable approach than systems that rely on prophylactic use of antibiotics, and in Australia, more resistant breeding stock will be better adapted to the less intensive systems of housing

Selection for reduced disease incidence may not result in a genetic improvement in mortality but still has an economic value in a breeding program as it appears that
mortality will be phenotypically reduced with an improvement in disease resistance. One way of quantifying this could be to predict the difference in likelihood of survival from one week to the next between animals that exhibit disease symptoms and those that are healthy. An economic value could then be ascribed to a difference in disease incidence as it relates to a difference in predicted survival. So although there may be no genetic improvement in mortality, there may be a phenotypic improvement resulting in improved economic return.

This study demonstrates that visible signs of bacterial infection in rabbits have a genetic component of variance. Heritability of the trait (0.06 ± 0.02 with linear model and 0.12 ± 0.05 with a threshold model) is high enough to warrant further evaluation of the merit of including it in a breeding program. These findings suggest that there are common/shared immunological responses to bacterial challenge that are under genetic
control.